Week Ahead
3 – 8 September 2018
“The salvation of our world lies in the hands of the creatively maladjusted.” Martin Luther King Jr.
3 – 5 September 2018
SECTION27 will co-host the Public Interest Law Gathering (PILG) an annual conference hosted by NGOs involved in the public interest law sector. These are SECTION27, Corruption Watch, Lawyers for Human Rights (LHR), the Legal Resource Centre (LRC), Pro Bono.org, the Socio-Economic Rights Institute (SERI), the Wits University School of Law and the Equal Education Law Centre (EELC). For more information, please visit our Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/events/220931198620230/.
SECTION27 will host two panels on 5 September. These are “Should public interest organisations use political lobbying as an advocacy tool for social justice” and “Towards a social justice manifesto”. We hope to see you there!
Monday, 3 September 2018
SECTION27 collaborated with the Institute for Economic Justice and the Centre for Economic and Social Rights on a submission to the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. The submission, made on 3 September 2018, focused on government’s obligation to utilise the ‘maximum of its available resources’ towards the realisation of socio-economic rights, looking at how government generates, allocates and spends public money. We submitted evidence to show that the government’s austerity policy is limiting the availability of resources for health care and education, with damaging impacts for the delivery of these functions, while alternative measures for raising sufficient resources are available but are not being sufficiently explored.
Wednesday, 5 September 2018
Executive Director, Mark Heywood will attend the inaugural conference of the Southern Centre for Inequality Studies the University of the Witwatersrand. He will participate in a working group which will focus on initiatives that seek to develop alternatives that transcend the current economic and political relations. Generative politics, we suggest, shifts from the defensive (or contentious) phase, and seeks to construct and develop new institutions and channels for mass participation.
Friday, 7 September 2018
Mark will speak at the Rethinking Economics For Africa Festival (REFA) conference, on “Economic policy and socio-economic rights: how do they talk to each other? The event will take place at Wits University 16:00 – 17:00. REFA is an organisation of students at WITS University, building better economics in society and the classroom.
Budget Analyst Daniel McLaren will also take part in a panel discussion on “Living in the age of austerity” 15:30 at the same event.
Field Researcher Solanga Milambo will attend a South African National AIDS Council (SANAC) plenary meeting at the Union Buildings. This plenary will discuss civil society’s contribution to the UN High Level Meeting (HLM) on Tuberculosis scheduled for 26 September in New York. The plenary aims to provide a platform for civil society to engage robustly on how it can continue support the National Strategic Plan for TB, HIV and STIs, 2017-2022 as well as the implementation of the Political Declaration post the HLM.
Saturday, 8 September 2018
Mark will participate in a panel discussion at the South African Book Fair at the Newtown Precinct with Prince Mashele and Jan-Jan Joubert. The discussion entitled ‘New President, now what?’ will be led by Ralph Mathekga.
The week that was:
SECTION27 hosted a Civil Society discussion about the Competition Commission’s Health Market Inquiry (HMI) provisional report published on 5 July 2018. The discussion was led by HMI panellist Professor Sharon Fonn who outlined the findings of the report and the panel’s recommendations; SECTION27 Deputy Director, Umunyana Rugege spoke about the human rights implications of the recommendations made by the panel. Head of Health Sasha Stevenson presented a perspective on the National Health Insurance Bill and the HMI proposals. Participants noted that there needs to be better alignment between the findings of the HMI and the proposed NHI Bill and Medical Schemes amendment Bill. Professor Fonn encouraged participants to make comment on the provisional report as the closing date for comments is Friday 7 September 2018.
Deputy Director, Umunyana Rugege made an oral submission on the Competition Amendment Bill to the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Economic Development on Wednesday 29 August 2018.
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