Social justice and advocacy was supported by 12% of companies and received 1% of average CSI spend in 2022.
Trialogue started tracking spend on social justice and advocacy as a separate sector in 2017. The support of, and expenditure on, this sector remains low. The proportion of companies investing in this sector has fallen from 21% in 2017 to 12% in 2022, and they are investing relatively small amounts. The allocation of funding within this sector fluctuates year on year, largely due to the small sample.
Type of intervention
In 2022 constitutional awareness and education (29%) and collaborative networks (29%) received the greatest portion of social justice and advocacy spend.
The changing landscape of social justice and advocacy in South Africa
– The Constitution of the Republic of South Africa was adopted in December 1996.
– The White Paper on Local Government sets out to address the relationship between traditional leadership and local government, as well as ensuring political leaders remain accountable and work within their mandate.
– The Public Participation Framework for the South African Legislative Sector sets out the norms and standards for public participation within the legislative sector.
– The Judicial Commission of Inquiry into Allegations of State Capture, Corruption and Fraud in the Public Sector, popularly known as the Zondo Commission, was established in January 2018. The final report was delivered in June 2022.
– ‘Inequality Trends in South Africa: A multidimensional diagnostic of inequality’ was published by Stats SA and the Southern Africa Labour and Development Research Unit (SALDRU), highlighting how inequality has increased since the financial crisis.
– During September 2019 protests against gender-based violence (GBV) peaked after Uyinene Mrwetyana, a student at the University of Cape Town (UCT), was brutally raped and murdered.
– A March 2020 study by SALDRU revealed that the poorest 10% of households were likely to lose close to 45% of their income during the pandemic lockdown.
– More than 900 service delivery protests took place between August 2020 and January 2021.
– South Africa is rated by the World Bank as the most unequal society in the world with a Gini Coefficient of 63, where an approximate 10% of the population controls over 80% of the wealth.
– On 2 July 2022, the Defend our Democracy movement adopted the Declaration of the Conference for Democratic Renewal and Change.
