NGOs can keep government in check and accountable

By Chris Mkhize, Uthungula Community Foundation

Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in South Africa became weak after 1994, the year the country got a democratically elected representative government. Most activists in the NGO sector joined either government or political organizations.

Many activists in community-based organizations and NGOs joined trade unions that, in general, openly declared alignment with political organizations. Such developments made some political organizations strong, together with newly established NGOs and community-based organizations that had decided to form alliances with registered political organizations.

The reality of the South African society is that NGOs and community-based organizations continue to strengthen democracy in South Africa. Political organizations simply do not have the will nor the power to effectively oppose political leaders or to expose identified incidents of abuse of power. Only NGOs and opposition parties in parliament have the ability and power to keep government controlled, in check and publicly accountable. This is what NGOs do all the time.

At the same time, NGOs and community-based organizations in South Africa focus more on welfare services. Such services include: management of HIV/AIDS; promotion of early childhood education; delivering health, and humanitarian services; securing immediate shelter to victims of natural disasters; reducing abuse against women and children; providing assistance to poor families; and caring for the elderly.

Establishment of community foundations in the late 1990s helped strengthen the capacity of NGOs and community-based organizations. In the process of developing local communities, community foundations – working with and through NGOs and community-based organizations – provide services for a wide range of community issues.

Community foundations, in particular, are currently viewed as the most sustainable of all NGOs and community-based organizations to mentor and guide other NGOs and community-based organizations on their road to participatory democracy and sustainable and accountable socio-economic development. However, the culture of philanthropy in South Africa still remains under-developed. This is quite often ascribed to a lack of, or limited information about, how philanthropy could be used to pull communities out of poverty and underdevelopment.

In 2010 NGOs and community-based organizations mainly need capacity and resources to share, advertise and market goods and services. It is often costly to do this and one also needs the skills to do so. This is considered another factor that retards an accelerated development of NGOs and community-based organizations in South Africa.