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17 March, 2010

The King Report on Governance for South Africa, or the King III as it is called, applies to the public, private and the nonprofit sectors. The principles in the King III have been drafted for every entity concerned with achieving good governance, and could inspire legislation aimed at governing civil society organisations in the country (CSOs). The problem with King III is that it is associated with the Companies Act and speaks to the governance of companies registered in terms of companies’ legislation. The other problem is that it speaks to business and commercial enterprises, ignoring the fact that the nonprofit sector does not rely on trading as the only means to sustain themselves. The claim that every entity can apply the King III principles to achieve good governance is not evident in the report

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The King III report on Governance Principles for South Africa unintentionally overlooks the distinctive values on which the South African non-profit sector is based. It is not true that the King III report covers for profit and non-profit entities regardless of their founding constitutions. The non-profit sector should explore the development of a Good Governance Code or Charter that speaks to the specific governance and risk management needs of NPOs. Integrated reports, audit committees, corporate citizenship policies and business rescue proceedings will be meaningless to community-based organisations (CBOs) since they do not have the resources or the technical-know-how to distinguish which of the King III principles apply to them

The majority of poor pupils attend school in the rural areas and townships in South Africa. These schools lack resources and are unable to produce learners who can compete with those who come from former Model C schools. These schools struggle to produce matriculants who meet the university admission requirements. Transformation of the education system cannot happen without ‘dedicated, hard-working, motivated and well-educated teachers’. Township and rural schools need to be capacitated to be able to provide education to a satisfactory standard

This article looks at how the global economic downturn is making it difficult for companies to contribute to the development of communities through CSI initiatives. The author argues that corporate philanthropy will disappear as companies struggle to emerge from the crisis. Corporate partners can co-donate with their customers and staff to community-based projects implemented by NGOs and other potential beneficiaries. Poverty, inequality and questionable democracy - some of the realities we live with - could be partly addressed through integrated CSI programmes. Apart from CSI, numerous surveys suggest that South African consumers are increasingly influenced by companies’ environmental and social policies when selecting products and services

Government putting unemployment and poverty alleviation so central in the 2010 budget is to be welcomed. However, more must be done to address the structural nature of poverty and inequality.

The newly-appointed Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan presented the 2010/11 National Budget to Parliament on 17 February 2010 in Cape Town. As in the past few years, SANGONeT is pleased to present you with the comments and perspectives of various NGOs in response to the budget.Issues covered by the NGO comments range from general observations about the budget to key development priorities such as education, social services, gender, urbanisation, children and health

Continuity is important for ongoing policy development and implementation, and does not result in shocks to either society or the markets. Thus the single most important determinant of this year’s Budget was last year’s insofar as the changes are ones of emphasis and not of direction. Obviously this Budget must also be read within the context of the three year expenditure cycle. The Budget comes within a context of what some commentators believe is the tail end of a world recession. Thus the Budget is mindful of global pressures and uncertainties on domestic economies.

While Minister Pravin Gordham has presented a budget that is probably “right for the time” it is however a very disappointing budget for poor children and their families. Most shocking is the miniscule increase in the Child Support Grant by R 10 per month to R 250 per child per month. This is an increase of 4.1 percent and will give each child one extra slice of bread per day. Phasing in the child support grant up to a child’s 18th birthday does not compensate for insignificant increase. It is clear that to do this the Minister deliberately kept the increase so low. Interestingly he did not say when this would happen.

From an NGO point of view the budget is extremely disappointing. Whilst transport costs (highly influenced by the cost of fuel) affect black people disproportionately higher than whites, the minister has increased fuel levies by 25.5 cents per litre. In my opinion to tax the poor and unemployed is unacceptable.

Non-profit organisations (NPOs) delivering social welfare services in Gauteng are extremely disappointed at the lack of any mention in the Budget speech of a desperately-needed new financial deal for their sector. On 28 August last year, mass action took place countrywide to bring to government's attention the plight of organisations battling to serve the country's most vulnerable people - including orphaned and vulnerable children and those who are abused, exploited or abandoned; people with disabilities; frail and destitute older people; those affected by crime and violence; homeless children and adults; refugees; poverty-stricken communities - and many more.

Firstly, our Minister of Finance seems to have presented a very prudent budget, with mention of social spending, and a caution to us, to not incur unnecessary debt. Once you move on from this, I find myself asking the same questions that I have with the budgets of the previous two years. These all revolve around the fact that the right noises are being made at a macro level, but this is once again a case of will these budget line items be effectively translated into a better way of life for the South Africans we work with on a daily basis. I can only base my answer on what has happened in the past, and to me the answer is probably no.

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