Peace Centre advocacy is focused on legislative reform to push back against the extraordinary levels of corruption that have characterised the last 25 years and contributed so significantly to our deepening poverty and inequality.
These are long term projects aimed at addressing some of the fundamental problems in our society which, thanks to pro-bono legal effort, do not demand too much of our resources.
CORRUPTION
The Peace Centre sees corruption as a direct tax on the poorest. In South Africa, this plundering of money has resulted in spectacular failures in education, health and spiralling unemployment.
One example – shortly after the collapse of Apartheid, the new ANC-led government was persuaded to upgrade the military. The result was a squadron of jet fighter planes supplied by British Aerospace (BAE) plus a fleet of frigates and submarines from Germany. South Africa arguably had no need for any of these. The cost was enormous as were the suspected bribes paid.
The Peace Centre has joined with NPO Accountability Now and other like-minded organisations to take ex-president Zuma to the Constitutional Court.
So far, it has taken 22 years and there seems little hope of retrieving any money, but at least the culprits are being identified.
INTEGRITY COMMISSION
A more fundamental action – also in conjunction with Accountability Now, is an appeal for an Integrity Commission. This should be a Chapter 9 institution (almost untouchable by politicians in South Africa without Constitutional change) with the power to both investigate and to prosecute corrupt activity. It would have powers which are now spread among several ministries.
CHILD ABUSE LEGISLATION
South Africa is a violent country and “spare the rod and spoil the child” has been used to justify a great deal of cruel behaviour. The Peace Centre, acting with the Children’s Institute, the Centre for Child Law and four others, took a particularly brutal case of child abuse to the courts which sent it on to the Constitutional Court. This ruled that the defense of “reasonable chastisement (commonly used when punishing children) was unconstitutional and must cease.
Corporal punishment in schools (already illegal) is still widely used and it will need a change in law to give teeth to the Court’s ruling.