Negative impacts of the industrial agricultural under discussion
By Tarryn-Leigh Solomons
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Cape Town - Southern African Faith Communities’ Environment Institute (SAFCEI) executive director Francesca de Gasparis says the current approach to food security, in the face of the intensifying climate crisis, will do more harm than good on the continent.
Speaking during a virtual briefing focused on the real-life examples of the negative impacts of the Industrial Agricultural model in Africa and the alternatives, De Gasparis said African farmers need support to find communal solutions that increase climate resilience, rather than the top-down profit-driven industrial-scale farming systems proposed.
On behalf of faith leaders, the institute wrote an open letter to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation appealing to the foundation to reconsider its approach to “food security and food production” and to stop their push for “input-intensive crop” monoculture agriculture and in
The Civil Society Working Group on State Capture has called for the accountability of criminals fingered in the State Capture Commission of Inquiry led by acting Chief Justice Raymond Zondo.
The group says that the recent unrest and looting in KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng is a direct result of the criminality of the State Capture actors and that not only the rioters and looters needed to face the law, but also those implicated in corruption at the commission.
The organisations say that the capacity of state institutions has already been weakened and that the effect of the looting will have far-reaching effects that go beyond just financial consequences.
2021 - Civil Society calls on accountability for state capture criminals wits.ac.za - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from wits.ac.za Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Since it was published, the 2021 Budget has been called out as unconstitutional and austere from many corners. More than 200 social movements, civil society organisations, trade unions and individuals, in an open letter to members of Parliament, have endorsed a call for MPs to reject the Budget and send it back to the drawing board. The current Budget will cut public spending by R265-billion over the next three years in areas which directly affect human rights.
The signatories of the open letter represent 1.5 million people, according to Section27, one of the signatories.
The letter urges the members of Parliament to use their constitutional powers to send the Budget back to the executive. They should demand that it protects human rights and finds an alternative way of managing public debt, the letter states.
Dear Justice Zondo,
We the undersigned organisations, whistle-blowers and human rights activists, co-ordinated by Open Secrets, write to you as the Commission of Inquiry into Allegations of State Capture, Corruption and Fraud enters its important final phase of work. We write to you today concerning a glaring gap in your work to date: framing the accountability of those corporations complicit in State Capture. There is an urgent need to call corporations to provide detailed evidence of their alleged complicity in State Capture to the commission.
We recognise that the commission is under significant pressure and believe that recent legal steps taken by the commission to compel former president Jacob Zuma to appear in a public forum to account before the commission is to be lauded and is a step in the right direction. However, impunity thrives on a culture of silence and inaction. We believe that it is important to remind individuals such as Zuma that we are all equal before the law