On Volunteering and Voluntarism

A great writer, one of the greatest, wrote a book about two cities… 

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times,
it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness,
it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity…

The best of times
Saturday was Mandela Day.  Taking my own advice from the previous C4L bulletin, I got out there for 67 minutes of community service.  I identified a visible need – to clean up the litter strewn along Touyz road, which C4L’s long laneway empties into.  It is a paved city street, traveled by car and traveled by foot – depending on which of the two cities you come from.

From beer bottles to cigarette butts, I picked them up – by hand.  I got some exercise, but not exactly fresh air considering the unpleasant aromas that I encountered.  To the passers-by, I explained that it was Mandela Day and that I was serving my community by cleaning up the environment.  Mostly, they laughed.

Last year in a media interview, Desmond Tutu “slammed ordinary South Africans who have no regard for the rule of law and carelessly litter, drive dangerously and neglect and abuse children, among other things…”   We live in a land of littering.

What can you do?  Mandela Day seemed like a good opportunity to make a start.  It is better to light a single candle than to curse the darkness.  I filled four green garbage bags with litter and left them at the end of the lane for garbage day on Friday.

The worst of times
Sunday morning I went to church.  After church I did a bit of shopping, having long since re-interpreted that commandment about keeping the Sabbath holy.

When I turned into the lane, almost home, I got quite a start!  The green garbage bags were disappearing.  The garbage remained clustered in the form of bagging, like some weird modern-art sculpture, but the outer balers had disappeared!

Sure enough, someone had untied the knot at the top of the bags, turned them over, and snafooed those green garbage bags!

Foolishness and incredulity indeed...  it just took the wind out of my wisdom and belief!  Is the grip of poverty so tight that the balers used to bag garbage are of sufficient value for someone to steal?  Bag lifting?!  Carpet baggers takes on a whole new meaning – not just for a northerner like me who went to the South to make money…

Was there still a “Yankee go home” message in there some where?  Or just pure poverty?  The term carpetbagger became synonymous with any outsider who meddles in an area's political affairs for his own benefit.  Is there some xenophobia brewing again?

Interestingly enough, carpet bags were an early form of recycling.  Saddlemakers rescued old worn out rugs and cut them up, salvaging remnants still in good condition to make cheap bags.  I wouldn’t mind if they recycled the garbage – but the garbage bags?!  Give me a break.

The epoch of incredulity
I learned yesterday from Adam Habib, a reliable source, that 70 per cent of the funding that fuels South African NGOs come from government sources.  So much for them being non-governmental organizations!

South Africa has been described as a first world country and a third world country occupying the same space.  Another tale of two cities.  Some say that the problem is poverty.  Others say the problem is disparity.  The best of times and the worst of times travel down the same street, Touyz Road, right at the end of C4L’s long laneway.

Habib says that unemployment in South Africa had doubled since the first democratic elections in 1994 – before we entered the Great Recession.  Food for thought.

Some of you know how I have agonized – for a year at least - over the proportions of C4L’s support base.  85 per cent over the past 10 years from sources outside South Africa is too high to suggest the degree of local ownership that is a propos of a mixed campus community.  C4L may have a spectacular track record in terms of service delivery, but government is moribund when it comes to sharing the loot with NGOs.  (Which, in turn – on average – draw 70 per cent of their funding from government sources.  In that respect, C4L is a conspicuous exception!)

We live in a culture of looting.  Not just the disappearing act at the end of our laneway, but this could go a long way to explaining why there is so little “trickle down” for NGOs.  It’s the Colorado River syndrome – very little gets through to the poor, who are left to rob people’s garbage bags off the street.

No wonder that people are rising up violently in the townships of Mpumalanga to protest the lack of government service delivery.  One new minister in the new cabinet bought not one but two Mercedes cars – one to use in Pretoria the other to use while at his Capetown office – for over one million Rand.  That would run the whole gamut of C4L operations for 6 months!

Worse yet, the Department of Health and Social Development in our province was the only ministry in 2008 that actually returned money to the Treasury – that it couldn’t spend!  Other departments asked for and received budget increases, but DSD sent millions of Rand back - because they underspent!

C4L exists to develop the capacity of people, organizations and networks in civil society – the nonprofit sector.  It promotes both volunteering and Voluntarism.  It is never been convinced that a minimum wage for volunteers makes sense, but tries its best to adapt and contextualize in recognition that there are two cities, a world apart.

But it ain’t easy at times!!!