Selokela Molamodi
Above: Attendees of the 2024 Budget Justice Coalition Annual General Meeting in Cape Town.
2024 Budget Justice Coalition Annual Meeting.
Economic justice is a long road that requires consistency, clarity, and continuity. Young Urban Women SA joined several stakeholders at the AIDC offices in Cape Town for the Budget Justice Coalition Annual General Meeting. The meeting took place from 2 – 3 December and was a jam-packed program for those two days. Young Urban Women Movement SA was represented by Kwa-Thema based community facilitator, Zandile ‘Dynamite’ Mabaso.
The annual general meeting brought together different experts and activists to unpack a variety of issues about the budget. Day one of the program focused on break-away sessions and a keynote address by journalist and social justice activist, Mark Heywood. “Civil society has justice and law on its side, ideas, morality, networks, funding but no power,” he said during his virtual presentation on ‘Rethinking Activism In Africa’. The presentation further looked at the evolution of activism in South Africa, the qualities of activists, and most importantly, activism in the Government of National Unity (GNU) era. “To capitalists, growth takes priority and for movements such as ours to flourish we need to start thinking about ways to invest in growth and speak the language that appeals to the discourse (growth) without ultimately adopting it, but criticizing the GNU’s approach to growth such as unpacking the uncomfortable conversations of national debt and their debt structures,” Zandile Mabaso said as she responded to what the GNU means for the YUWM work in the next year.
Another key highlight of day one was a working group session where attendees were divided into groups to work on different topics. The report back included budget literacy and public education, corruption, public procurement and budget transparency, communications and media, finance, grant management and sustainability, fiscal policy, structural transformation, and feminist economics. The rest of the day was spent unpacking the different economic concepts and how they relate to or affect people in their everyday lives, an important element of the policy-making process.
The program on the second day was about self-care through affirmations, movement through group activities outside, and more insights into well-being economics. Attendees shared their superpowers and how they can fully rely on them to change the world. BJM AGM’s facilitator Thoko Madonko highlighted fiscal ecosystems in South Africa. 350. org’s Senior Campaigner and Finance Expert Khaliel Moses asked feminist economist, Phelisa Nkomo, how activists can be more effective given the G20 reflections. “Economic justice campaigning would be an impactful entry point,” she responded. She went on to highlight working group participation from different sector organizations working towards a similar or the same cause such as climate Justice organizations and Economic Justice organizations. “Civil Society to contribute more from a policy perspective is an entry point,” she concluded. OxFam’s Nkateko and Equal Education’s Ayanda Sishi-Wigzell were also in the room and shared insights on the different topics of the day.
The annual general meeting concluded with a commitment from all the organizations that were present to continue doing the work. Most importantly, to take the work where it matters the most, the ground.