Daily Maverick op-ed by Shelagh Gastrow, Director of GastrowBloch Philanthropies.

• View the original publication on the Daily Maverick website.

The Department of Social Development recently issued a moratorium on the deregistration of NPOs which do not comply with key legislation. Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge released the following statement. 

On Tuesday evening Inyathelo and The Atlantic Philanthropies hosted a joint reception to celebrate the official launch of the Inyathelo Civil Society Sustainability Centre. The event featured a panel discussion on philanthropic investments in the built enviroment. Panelists included Prof Brian O'Connell (Former Vice Chancellor, University of the Western Cape), Louise Driver (CEO, Children's Hospital Trust), Russell Ally (Executive Director, Alumni and Development, University of Cape Town), Tracey Henry (CEO, Tshikululu Social Investment) and Albie Sachs (Former Constitutional Court Judge). After the panel discusion, Inyathelo's new Executive Director, Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge, officially opened the centre with these remarks.

Civil society is facing new challenges at a time when we need to build a vibrant democracy, according to Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge, former deputy minister for both defence and health, writes Sue Grant-Marshall of the CITY PRESS.

Originally published in the Daily Maverick

Philanthropists are human beings and they make mistakes. Generally they don’t like to admit their mistakes and, even worse, they do not want their mistakes making headlines. Taking into account that philanthropic money is private, whether it is an individual’s own personal resources or funds from a private foundation, responsibility for mistakes is usually only recognised in-house. So what can we learn when mistakes loom large?

A discussion around the use of the term "NGO" has emerged from the launch of the .ngo domain for nonprofit organisations by the Public Interest Registry, the US-based organisation officially responsible for operating, maintaining and cataloging all .org domain names.

The abuse of non-profits that are, in essence, just doing their job, is on the increase. There appears to be a distinct lack of political education about our Constitution within the ruling party. And there also appear to be disturbing and ongoing threats to independent organisations who speak out against the ANC.

• View the original article published in the Daily Maverick

How seriously should we be taking threats to deregister outspoken NPOs? Recently, Murray Hunter from the Right 2 Know campaign, TAC General Secretary Anele Yawa, Sheldon Magardie from the Legal Resources Centre, and Simbongile Kamtshe, the Head of Programmes at the Association of Community Advice Offices of South Africa (ACAOSA) joined Inyathelo's Executive Director Shelagh Gastrow for a debate on the topic. But first, a little background...

This week at the District Six Homecoming Centre in Cape Town, it was announced that a $25 million (R285 million) fund will be jointly established by the Open Society Foundation, the Ford Foundation and Atlantic Philanthropies to advance South African constitutionalism for next 10 years. Inyathelo's Shelagh Gastrow explains that by strengthening civil society, we are helping to protect the foundations of our constitutional democracy.

The Director General of the Department of Social Development invites applications from suitably qualified persons for service as members of the Board of the National Development Agency.