South Africa Development Fund

Actively involved in grassroots environmental justice campaigns to protect the rights and improve the health of communities battling toxic waste and corporate pollution of air and water.

Why do we exist?

By the mid-eighties, thousands of South Africans had fled into exile to escape political oppression and the international anti-apartheid movement was established. The South Africa Development Fund was founded in 1985 by exiles living in the U.S. to provide financial aid to organizations working in South Africa's urban and rural communities. South Africa is now a democracy, but the legacy of the apartheid social policies will take many years to undo.

Whole generations grew up without a decent education and are left illiterate and unemployed. Millions of black South Africans still live in makeshift shacks with no electricity or clean water. The HIV/AIDS epidemic has hit South Africa incredibly hard, with six million South Africans living with HIV. But with the advent of democracy, there began the hope that South Africa can become the society that people dreamed of for so long - and along the way, provide a model of freedom and justice for the entire continent.

The new South African Constitution states that every South African is entitled to a clean and healthy environment. Under apartheid, many poor communities were used as dumping grounds by local and international corporations – leaving a legacy of toxic waste. Oil refineries and industry have seriously polluted the air in nearby communities leading to serious health issues like asthma and childhood leukemia. In South Africa, the highest environmental costs have been imposed on poor and marginalized people.

There has been major transformation in the possibilities for participatory governance in South Africa. Previously disenfranchised citizens find themselves in a situation where they have new rights and a promising environmental law, but lack the capacity to fight international corporations. Community-based initiatives have been established to provide the advocacy and skills needed to address the rights of poor communities living in unhealthy conditions that exist as a result of outside action.

What have you accomplished?

With the help of our supporters in the US, the South Africa Development Fund has raised $12.6 million for a variety of projects in South Africa. For much of its existence, SADF focused on addressing the HIV/AIDS pandemic, toxic environments, poverty, disempowerment of woman and children, education, social justice, and other human rights issues faced by the still-disadvantaged sectors of South African society.

SADF has recently reorganized its resources to focus on South Africa’s growing environmental justice sector.  The government has made it clear it will not police, regulate or monitor the environment. The role of self-regulation is left to industries and corporations and to the communities they pollute. Community leaders and environmental justice activists assert that management of the environment by civil society is the best route to redressing the damage that exists and preventing further degradation of residential communities.

One example of SADF’s support of environmental justice is its partnership with groundWork, an organization which tests the environmental rights enshrined in the country’s constitution. groundWork was established in 1999 to provide advocacy and resources for communities suffering from pollution and toxic waste. Its campaigns have effectively brought to light the environmental racism of apartheid policies and practices which allowed poor black communities to be corporate dumping grounds, and which continue to jeopardize their health and well-being.

groundwork partnered with the South Durban Community Environmental Alliance to address the most environmentally ravaged areas of South Africa. South Durban is home to many highly-populated communities side-by-side to large petrochemical plants, several chemical storage facilities, and many industries. Out of this partnership grew the grassroots Bucket Brigade that makes use of an easily constructed device to take air samples to prove their case of corporate pollution. This has successfully put power into the hands of ordinary citizens when facing multi-national corporations.

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