Events

Observing Progress, Addressing Challenges in South Africa

Alexandra Township is one of the poorest in South Africa. Many residents of Alexandra lack access to basic services, including electricity and running water.

Ford Foundation President Luis Ubiñas recently visited our regional office in Johannesburg. The office makes grants in South Africa, Mozambique, Namibia and Zimbabwe.

Alice Brown, the Ford Foundation Representative in Johannesburg, sent the following dispatch:

"The staff enjoyed welcoming Luis to South Africa. The four-day visit provided an opportunity to brief him on the work Ford has been doing in the region. In South Africa, our grant making has included support for research, consultations and policy dialogues that informed the drafting of the Constitution, transformation of the nation’s universities to serve more disadvantaged people and addressing post-apartheid social justice and economic issues.

Ford Foundation President Luis Ubiñas in a courtroom at the Constitutional Court, South Africa’s highest court on constitutional matters, in March 2008.

"The first place we took Luis was the Constitutional Court building, where he met with Chief Justice Pius Langa and several other justices. We have supported the Constitutional Court Trust in a number of ways, including sponsorship of research assistants and clerks, help in expanding its library, and support for historic exhibits at the site. The court, the highest in South Africa on constitutional matters, was established by the country's first democratic constitution in 1994, and is key to ensuring that a culture of human rights is entrenched in the country.

"Luis also visited the township of Alexandra, known as Alex, to meet with a number of community activists including representatives from Kasigo Trust, a community-based AIDS support group that is one of our grantees, to discuss some of the economic and community development issues facing this area.

President Ubiñas visits Old Fort Prison Complex where, during apartheid, black prisoners awaiting trial, including Nelson Mandela, were held for months under inhumane conditions.

"The conditions in Alex demonstrate how under apartheid the state purposefully underdeveloped and withheld resources from black South Africans. Although it is adjacent to Sandton, one of the wealthiest areas in South Africa, Alex, with a population of nearly 1 million, is cramped and overcrowded. Its schools are woefully under-resourced and many of the township’s residents lack access to proper sanitation systems and other basic services and amenities.

"We chose to visit Alex so that Luis could see the stark contrasts in living conditions among South Africans. To see Alex is to see the challenges facing the South African government and civil society organizations as they try to remedy past inequities and injustices with limited economic resources."

The Ford Foundation is an independent, nonprofit grant-making organization. For more than half a century it has been a resource for innovative people and institutions worldwide, guided by its goals of strengthening democratic values, reducing poverty and injustice, promoting international cooperation and advancing human achievement. With headquarters in New York, the foundation has offices in Africa, the Middle East, Asia, Latin America, and Russia.