Last week (July 17, 2025) we participated in a demonstration when a group failed with hate, marched to the offices of the Socio-Economic Rights Institute (Seri). While Seri were targeted by this group which one journalist called “vigilante anti-immigration group Operation Dudula”, they were attacking something much wider: our democracy.

On their posters, they informed the public that their march was against “Unpatriotic NGOs and Chapter 9 Institutions Must Fall!!!”

Under attack were groups like the Helen Suzman Foundation, the Human Rights Commission and Seri.

Their poster accused these NGOs for protecting criminals – illegal immigrants. When we met them outside the Seri offices, police were on hand to ensure peace under trying circumstances as a few in the group dressed in expensive military fatigues, and carried intimidatory rocks as they hurled insults at us.

The march against these groups was defended by others in the civil society movement, groups such as Kopanang Africa Against Xenophobia, Abahlali baseMjondolo, the Inner City Federation, and the South African Informal Traders Forum – the glaring absence from other political and civic formations in particular unions in defending if not the NGOs but a Chapter 9 body was obvious and glaring.  

Austerity: friendly fire?

The Human Rights Commission were singled out because they reaffirmed the principles and values of the Constitution and the rulings of the Constitutional Court on health care for all. But this must not hide the fact that the Commission has been injured by friendly fire – our government. 

The austerity measures of the government against the people and these bodies that are supposed to serve the public is the real enemy. It would be good, even with the fiscal repression, to have seen democrats from all hues and shades that profess to love the constitution be present and make a stand for this Constitution and its values.

For the uninformed, bodies like the (a) The Public Protector; (b) The South African Human Rights Commission; (c) The Commission for the Promotion and Protection of the Rights of Cultural, Religious and Linguistic Communities; (d) The Commission for Gender Equality; (e) The Auditor-General; and (f) The Electoral Commission, all are known as Chapter 9 institutions. 

They take their name from the chapter of the Constitution with the heading: Chapter 9: State Institutions Supporting Constitutional Democracy.

Political economist Ebrahim-Khalil Hassen argues that Chapter 9 institutions, including the Human Rights Commission, face significant challenges as budgets are unlikely to grow significantly. He shows that the SAHRC programme on “monitoring observance of human rights” budget will decline by 10% between 2024/25 and projected budget in 2027/28.

While the government websites extol the virtues of our participatory democracy and the role of the Chapter 9s as being a check on power, they do not fund these sentiments. The writer beautifully quotes former Chief Justice Pius Langa when he states that their role is “to secure the freedom of every citizen by seeking to avoid an excessive concentration of power, which can lead to abuse, in one person or body”.

Is the underfunding just about our poverty or is it an ideology of austerity that inevitably undermines us all, starting with civic organisations, including those constitutional bodies that are mandated to keep a check on power? While you ponder on this, think what could be achieved if the funds would have been used to revitalise bodies like the SAHRC and others that are supposed to do their work without fear or favour?

It is not all doom and gloom, and I feel I must end with these two hopeful takeaways from the recent events.

Firstly, I will be failing to mention that the staff and leaders at Chapter 9s are doing a sterling job and are committed to do so against all odds. They could do better with greater citizens’ pressure, critical participation and support so that they can deliver on their mandate without fear or favour. In addition to the SAHRC, we have the Auditor General of South Africa (AGSA), a body that has not failed to tell the government about how it is using public funds, and they are not afraid to call out the government in cases of corruption, or where funds were not used properly.

Citizens and civil society groups could do better by reading their audit reports and helping them (and us) to widen the base and culture of transparency and accountability that the AGSA have been trying to grow. Similarly with the Electoral Commission (IEC) which, despite austerity, has maintained its mission of being an “ independent constitutional body which manages free and fair elections of legislative bodies and institutions through the participation of citizens, political parties and civil society in deepening electoral democracy”.  

In conclusion,  I return to the protests and confirm that it was democracy in action as a civic society consisting largely of the working class and poor were engaged in debate on the streets. Amidst song and toyi-toyi at the defence of the Seri offices, one of the leaders of the shack-dwellers movement Abahlali baseMjondolo and coordinator of the peaceful gathering, Sbu Zikode, spoke directly to the leaders and the few members that attended from Operation Dudula.

He said that they were targeting their ire and fire and the wrong people and called on them to join the struggle for real socio-economic and political justice that is inclusive and not hateful.

That invitation I believe still stands.

* Hassen Lorgat is a social justice activist who has worked in trade union and anti-apartheid sports movements.

** The views expressed do not necessarily reflect the views of IOL or Independent Media. 

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