29 August 2017, Johannesburg — Today saw the launch of the South Africa Media Innovation Program (SAMIP) to provide dedicated funding and capacity building support to independent media in the country, focused on digital innovation.
Please check our website again soon for details of our next event.
You can also follow us on Twitter (@OSFSA) for the latest information.
The Open Society Foundation for South Africa (OSF-SA) and Publish What You Pay South Africa (PWYPSA) would like to invite you to the launch of a report on
South Africa’s Extractives Industry Disclosure Regime
Analysis of the legislative and regulatory regime and selected corporate practice
Prepared for OSF-SA
By Prof. Tracy-Lynn Humby and Dr Olufolahan Adeleke
The launch will take place as a side event to the 8th Alternative Mining Indaba. Attendance is not limited to registered delegates of the AMI.
Date: Tuesday, 7 February 2017
Venue: Queens Venue (Conference Floor), DoubleTree Hotel, Brickfield Road, Woodstock, Cape Town
Time: 18:30
Speakers will include Prof Humby, Dr Adeleke and representatives from the government, private sector and a mine-affected community.
The report identifies both the successes and gaps in South Africa’s legislative and regulatory framework as they relate to ownership, operational and financial disclosures in the extractive sector, including reviewing at least 30 laws and regulations applicable to the industry in South Africa and recently adopted disclosure standards used in European Union, United States of America and elsewhere.
Using five case studies that look at certain companies operating in South Africa, the report takes a realistic look at South Africa’s disclosure rules and considers how these companies have interpreted and operationalised these rules. The report argues that most companies in the extractive industry are veering towards secrecy instead of proactive disclosure, in the areas of mining and related licences, contracting practices, and Social and Labour Plans.
RSVP will be to Molly Smit on molly@mollysmit.co.za or 083 522 2550 by 30 January 2017.
Refreshments will be served.
The launch will take place as follows:
Date: Wednesday 8 February 2017
Venue: Cape Town School of Photography, 4th floor, 62 Roeland Street (cnr. Roeland and Canterbury Street), Cape Town
Time: 18:00
The Open Society Foundation for South Africa, with the Electoral Institute for Sustainable Democracy in South Africa (EISA) would like to invite you to an open dialogue which includes two panel discussions facilitated by Ebrahim Fakir (EISA).
Date: 9 September 2016
Time: 09.00 – 13.00
Venue: Townhouse Hotel
RSVP: yvette@eisa.org.za
Join us at a Public Interest Law Gathering at Wits Law School for a panel discussion on “Geojournalism for Improved Transparency in Governance”
Date: 30 August 2016
Time: 11.00 – 12.30
Venue: Chalsty Auditorium, Wits Law School
Geojournalism is helping to entrench participation by citizens in governance and compliance monitoring. Online mapping platforms facilitate the sharing of data and provide space for elevated communication via easy-to-use visualisations. The goal behind many data-driven geojournalism platforms is promoting public- and private-sector accountability, advancing civil society and socio-economic rights, protecting the free flow of information, and strengthening transparency and accountability. The session brings together a panel of experts who discuss how and why geojournalism works. They will talk about their experiences in accessing crucial data, how it translates into geojournalism visualisations, and the impacts this cutting-edge technology is having on the ground.
The session spotlights #MineAlert as a geojournalism tool that can address some of the transparency challenges that we see in the mining sector as well as Climate Tracker, another Oxpeckers geojournalism platform.
This comes after Oxpeckers launched #MineAlert in April this year, and training of several mine-affected communities on how to use the platform. Oxpeckers also presented #MineAlert at the recent Centre Environmental Rights /Centre for Applied Legal Studies mining conference held in July, and was featured in the World Resources Institute’s Environmental Democracy Index.
Speakers include:
Tholakele Nene: Geojournalism and transparency
Tholakele is an Associate at Oxpeckers Investigative Environmental Journalism, where she works on various multi-media, mobile and web-based tools. Tholakele will talk about her experiences in sourcing data for pioneering geojournalism platforms #GreenAlert and #MineAlert.
Anina Mumm: Liberating scientific data
Anina is a science communication and digital media specialist at ScienceLink. Anina will talk about the use of multi-media story-telling and other innovative digital tools in the sharing of scientific data, using the ClimaTracker case study.
Sobantu Mzwakali: The power of crowdmapping:
Sobantu is currently a reporter/journalist at the Land and Accountability Research Centre at the University of Cape Town. He will talk about his experiences in mapping community inputs as part of the Community Monitors – Mapping the Minefields project.
Tricia Govindasamy: Open source innovations:
Tricia is a geologist currently based at Open Data Durban. She will discuss how open source innovations can assist participation by citizens in governance and compliance monitoring, with insights from her participation in the recent United Nations Open Camp gathering in New York.
Facilitator: Ichumile Gqada:
Ichumile is a senior research and advocacy officer at the Open Society Foundation for South Africa (OSF-SA), where she is responsible for leading the organisation’s extractive industry transparency work and social auditing capacity support. OSF-SA funds and collaborates on some of the geojournalism platforms, and Ichumile has a good insight into their progress.
The Electoral Institute for Sustainable Democracy in Africa (EISA) will be hosting a seminar on the 27 July 2016.
After the Party: 21 years of electoral democracy – what does South Africa’s 2016 local government elections hold for the future?
Date: 27 July 2016
Venue: Holiday Inn Rosebank
Time: 09:30–16:00
Programme: Download PDF
By: Monday 25 July 2016, 12:00
To: Yvette – yvette[at]eisa.org.za
Email: Yvette (yvette[at]eisa.org.za) or Ebrahim (ebrahim[at]eisa.org.za)
Tel: +27 11 381 6000
The International AIDS Conference for 2016 (IAC2016) provides a valuable platform for the Open Society Foundations to highlight the work of our public health grantees in advancing the rights of marginalised groups and engage with issues of health-systems strengthening, movement building for health rights including expanding access to medicines.
Social Justice Through the Lens will be showing at the Breakaway Café for First Thursdays Cape Town. Social Justice Through the Lens shows the work of the winners of OSF-SA’s inaugural photography competition which sought to to find photographs that capture the essence of the work supported by OSF-SA, its grantees and partner organisations whilst also providing a platform to showcase emerging young photographers in South Africa.
We would like to invite you to join us at 17h30 for the opening of ‘Social Justice through the Lens’ on 21 June 2016 at Breakaway Café, 50 Waterkant Street, Cape Town. Please RSVP to molly@mollysmit.co.za
