‘It is the only local organisation offering these services.’

Founded at the height of apartheid, the Peace Centre in Cape Town has undergone some difficult times of late. But Carole Rakodi and Carol Bower report on the benefits of a change in direction.

The Peace Centre in Cape Town was founded by members of the Cape Western Monthly Meeting (CWMM) in the 1980s. This was when conflict between South Africans and the apartheid government was at its height. From the outset, Friends in Britain and Ireland – and elsewhere – provided financial support. In 2008, the Centre became an independent, registered NGO, with its own board. But close links with Friends in Southern Africa and beyond were maintained.

South Africa has found it difficult to overcome the legacies of apartheid, despite achieving majority rule in 1994. Today it is still a highly unequal, divided, conflicted society, with an overstretched education system and high levels of unemployment, especially among young people. This makes them vulnerable to drug dealers and gangs, in turn fuelling high crime rates, xenophobia and violence.

For many years, the work of the Peace Centre was concentrated in schools, where it worked with pupils and teachers to combat bullying, provide alternative ways of resolving conflict, promote positive approaches to discipline and empower young women. Building relationships with the provincial government, it developed a good reputation for this work, but resource restrictions meant that other aspects of its work took a back seat.

Although the Centre raised funds for its projects from a variety of sources, increasingly Friends expressed their concern about its over-dependence on funds raised from individual Friends, Local Meetings and trusts with Quaker connections in Britain and Ireland. At the end of 2016, Central England Area Meeting laid down the Committee which had raised funds for the Centre since 2010. In 2017, the Centre experienced a crisis, culminating in its staff being made redundant and ongoing projects ceasing.

Over the last year or so, however, it has developed a new vision and started new work.

New name and direction

After many years of allowing the Centre to use ‘Quaker’ in its name, Southern Africa Yearly Meeting (SAYM) asked it to stop doing so, as of August 2018, mostly because the Meeting felt that the Centre’s use of the Quaker name presupposed a formal accountability relationship which does not in fact exist. But links with CWMM and SAYM remain close and mutually supportive.

The Centre continues to honour and be bound by the Quaker values of nonviolence, tolerance, respect for diversity, speaking truth to power and following Quaker principles in its decision making. Several members of the board are Quakers.

In 2017/18, two strategic planning meetings charted a way forward. The Centre is now focusing its local work on engaging with and supporting communities in Cape Town, and its national work on advocacy for legislative change – to increase protection for children, to promote integrity in government and to hold the corrupt accountable.

Information and support hub, Khayelitsha

Khayelitsha, a large low-income township near the city, has very high levels of poverty, unemployment, crime and violence. The Peace Centre Hub there seeks to link people who are experiencing problems, or who need access to information and services, with sources of support. By providing access to the internet for job searches and support for writing job applications – linking those needing skills with training providers and supporting networks of community groups – the Centre seeks to build the capacity and resilience of individuals and communities, to enable them to find constructive routes out of poverty and despair. It is the only local organisation offering these services.

The Hub also links parents to information and support on nonviolent parenting. It facilitates access to accredited skills training, and connects school pupils with students from a local university, for tutoring in maths, science and English. One of its key aims is to build individual capacity to solve conflict without violence (partly through providing access to Alternatives to Violence Project training).

At the local level, the Centre assists in addressing community challenges, such as poor service delivery. It helps build the community’s capacity to solve conflict without violence, and facilitates community dialogues on issues such as land reform, and women’s and children’s rights

Teachers use the Centre to find information and support on making schools safer (building on the Centre’s earlier work and using Alternatives to Violence Project training). There is advocacy for stronger child protection and for holding government to account for wasteful and corrupt expenditure.

Recent highlights

The Hub was formally launched on 8 February. At the launch event several speakers, including a local councillor and the vice-chair of the Khayelitsha Development Forum, spoke enthusiastically about what the Centre is doing. The event culminated in the election of a six-member Community Advisory Panel, one of whom will have a seat on the Peace Centre board.

Several projects have followed. A recent partnership with StellieTech – an IT training company – gives Hub users access to accredited training at a fraction of the normal cost. A series of documentary screenings was followed by facilitated discussion on a range of topical issues, including land redistribution and climate change. A community dialogue programme has also been launched, with a debate on the issue of corporal punishment in the home, and a stakeholder consultation with local civic, religious and cultural organisations. The Hub has also been consulting in a matter before the Constitutional Court, on the constitutionality of the ‘reasonable chastisement’ defence for parents who assault their children – a decision is expected soon. Other legal action has involved proceedings to recoup money lost to corruption, including the cancellation of the BAE component of the 1999 arms deal.

Other projects are planned for later in the year: a series of constitutional literacy workshops for first-time voters will start in March, ahead of the elections on 8 May.

Funding

The strategic planning process and establishment of the Hub used the Centre’s remaining funds. Central England Area Meeting trustees have continued to provide support during the difficult transition period, making the final transfer of funds raised in the UK in January 2019. This will fund ongoing work until March, enabling the Centre to submit applications for new funding.

For more information, visit the Centre’s website (www.peacecentre.org.za), where you can register for its electronic newsletter. Carole Rakodi was the convenor of the Cape Town Quaker Peace Centre Committee 2010–2016. Carol Bower is the interim director of the Peace Centre.

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