Citizenship (June 2008)

For a long time citizenship was just another word in the dictionary; neutral and not occupying a significant space in political and socio-economic discourses. However, with the rise of the contemporary nation state, citizenship has acquired new significance; constructing who belongs and who doesn’t, and who has access to certain political and socio-economic rights and privileges.

With the increasing focus on electoral multi-party democracy and the development of human rights discourses, the term has become emotive and highly contentious socially and politically the world over. As such, the term has found a place in debates on civic and political rights, economic justice, gender and women’s rights, to list just a few. It has become a critical determinant of the extent to which one can enjoy certain rights, especially within the framework of a nation state. Issues of discrimination and entitlement to services and to political participation and other rights become important.

An audit on citizenship and discrimination conducted by the Open Society Justice Initiative in 2004, made an important observation that “the advent of multi-party democracy in many African states in the 1990s heightened the political significance of distinguishing citizens from non-citizens, and led to a marked increase in attempts to denationalise political opponents or even entire ethnic and social groups.” Because of this, and especially in Africa, citizenship has become a source of tensions, in some cases resulting in serious socio-political and ethno-political conflicts, some of which have led to disastrous wars and genocides.

Articles are available in pdf format [approximate file sizes in square brackets].

"We have degrees in violence": a report on torture and human rights abuses in Zimbabwe (December 2007)

Since early 2007 Zimbabwe has been subject to an upsurge in political violence that has seriously undermined the democratic process and created a presumption that elections will not be free and fair. State-sponsored violence directed toward any individuals or groups who are perceived to be critical of President Robert Mugabe, his government or his policies, manifests a strategy to demobilise Zimbabweans from mounting or supporting an organised opposition campaign.

The international community and Southern African Development Community (SADC) have attempted to play a role in encouraging a democratic process by introducing South Africa's president, Thabo Mbeki, as mediator between the ruling and opposition parties. However, the international community remains ineffective in its efforts to stop state-sponsored violence in Zimbabwe.

Available in pdf format [959KB].

International Institutions in Africa (November 2007)

This edition of OPENSPACE grapples with the notion of internationalism, how it has played out at various levels of socio-political organisation across the world and the implications this has had for African development and governance structures.

Internationalism is defined as a political movement which advocates a greater economic and political cooperation among nations for the theoretical benefit of all. Even in its most benign forms, the move towards economic and political cooperation often requires careful balancing, including that issues of particiapation, access to resources, good governance, and respect for human dignity and rights are factored into the grand ideals of the internationalists... it is often as a result of (or in response to) such processes that some societies tend to become either more closed or open, as some of the articles in this edition attest to.

Articles are available in pdf format [approximate file sizes in square brackets].

Swaziland (September 2007)

"In what way can Swaziland be a country in crisis? Isn't it one of the most peaceful countries in Southern Africa... where beautiful girls peacefully enjoy the reed dance every year? No one is being beaten by police in that country!" This is the type of response that my colleague and I received from many of the participants at the recently concluded CIVICUS General Assembly, when we gave out pamphlets that summarised the major crisis points in Swaziland...

Yet Swaziland is indeed – on many fronts – a country in crisis. This issue of OPENSPACE seeks to highlight the major crisis points in Swaziland, and hopefully to challenge activists in the region and abroad to step up advocacy activities.

Articles are available in pdf format [approximate file sizes in square brackets].

Constitutional Review and Reform: and the Adherence to Democratic Principles in Constitutions in Southern African Countries

(by Louise Olivier, 2007. ISBN: 978-0-620-38911-2)

Constitutionalism requires that a democratic and accountable government has constitutional limits that check its power, and that create the framework for governing a democracy. A country's constitution defines, at least theoretically, its commitment to constitutionalism. Constitutions define the polity, establish the rules and limitations of the relationship between the state and its citizens and they fix and reflect a social contract that underpins the functioning of organised society. Constitution-building has become an essential component of the road maps to peace and democracy in conflict, post-conflict, and transitional settings.

Révision des contrats en RDC: Cinq cas d’études faites par l’ingénieur Kalala Budimbwa.

La République Démocratique du Congo regorge, comme le reconnait tout le monde, d’énormes ressources naturelles qui peuvent, une fois exploitées à bon escient, servir de base à l’amélioration des conditions socio-économiques de sa population.

Ces ressources naturelles sont actuellement soit insuffisamment exploitées ou quand elles le sont, l’incidence dans l’amélioration de conditions de vie des Congolais n’est pas conforme aux performances réalisées par l’exploitation.

Parmi les matières premières exploitées, le cas des matières minérales nous intéresse particulièrement parce que l‘extraction minière a pendant longtemps, depuis l’époque coloniale, contribué avec le plus grand poids au budget de l’Etat; et que les actions futures à mener pour améliorer les conditions de vie des Congolais, tout en s’appuyant sur la valorisation d’autres ressources naturelles du pays, doivent compter avec le secteur minier qui servira encore longtemps de locomotive.

The Media: expression and freedom (December 2006)

Debates and discourses surrounding the establishment and securing of open societies have increasingly given the media an important place in healthy democracies. As an institution, the media is regarded as the bedrock of open societies: bridging the space between the state and the public. Vibrant and balanced media are therefore preferred and seen as ideal, in playing a watchdog role – especially for democracies to thrive. This is even more so in contexts such as Southern Africa, where the majority of the societies can arguably be considered young and budding democracies.

A number of questions arise from this observation and key among these are to do with how the media have managed that space that they occupy; how they have responded to the dynamics of socio-economic and political change at global, regional and national levels, especially the fast changing political and economic realities...

Articles are available in pdf format [approximate file sizes in square brackets].

Outside the Ballot Box: preconditions for elections in Southern Africa 2005/ 6

(Edited by Jeanette Minnie, and published by MISA on behalf of the PEPSA Consortium. ISBN: 9916-62-13-8)

Fourteen authors have collaborated in producing this second edition of Outside the Ballot Box. Last year, when eight authors participated, the main focus was on national elections and good electoral practice as a major instrument of democratisation in the SADC region.

This year, the main focus is on civil society as an instrument of democratisation. In addition, three articles were commissioned to discuss key problem areas that affect the region as a whole: the nature of liberation movements as governments, the struggle for gender equality in governance, and the lack of harmonised instruments to guide and assess elections.

By virtue of its theme, any discussion on the legacy of rule by liberation movements will be polemical in nature, and I invited the author of this article to tackle the subject head on. It explores the mindset of liberation movements as governments in the SADC region – those movements whose leaders and supporters fought and died, suffered torture and were separated from their loved ones through exile or imprisonment, in some instances for decades, to break the stranglehold of colonial racist rule in our part of Africa...

Promoting development through transparency and access to information

OSISA has established a platform of advocacy and action around resource watching, with emphasis on the extractive industry to tackle the bigger challenge of resource abuse and war economies in Southern Africa.

The region straddles a significantly resource-rich geoformation that includes currently exploited and as-yet unexploited deposits of gold, diamonds, oil, uranium and cobalt.

This CD-ROM resource pack includes a collection of documents related to this issue.

The resources are available online, but please note that some files exceed 2MB in size, and may take a long time to dowload.

To order a copy of the CD-ROM from OSISA, email publications@osisa.org or contact us.

Resource Extraction and Transparency (June 2006)

Part of the emerging discourse around economic justice has increasingly focused on public resource management – incorporating natural resources extraction, processing and utilisation, especially in the resource rich countries where the economies largely depend on these.

The emergent debates have also put on the agenda budgetary processes – calling on governments to account for how budgets are formulated and expended in the respective countries. We have seen a number of initiatives tracking resource extraction and expenditure, as well as the related issues of public service delivery in a number of countries and the emergence of movements such as ecological debt and reparations, and campaigns such as Publish What You Pay, among others.

Articles are available in pdf format [approximate file sizes in square brackets].