R2K 2014 National Summit Resolutions

The Right2Know Campaign held its fourth National Summit in Salt River, Cape Town, from 14-16 March 2014. The Summit was constituted by delegates elected at Provincial Summits in Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal, and the Western Cape, as well as members of the outgoing National Working Group and a number of observers from supporting organisations.

Delegates assessed the progress made since the third National Summit (in March 2013) and the challenges and opportunities facing the campaign in the coming year and then developed and adopted resolutions to guide our work in 2014 and elected a 2014/15 National Working Group:

• Vinayak Bhardwaj
• Carina Conradie
• Meshack Mbangula
• Dale T. McKinley
• Nkosingiphile Mpanza
• Roegshanda Pascoe
• Julie Reid
• Nomvula Sikakane
• Alison Tilley
• Hennie Van Vuuren
• Khaya Xintolo

 

Download the full R2K 2014 Summit Report.

 

R2K National Summit Resolutions 2014

Reaffirming all decisions taken at previous National Summits, the Campaign made the following resolutions:

Resolutions on Access to Information

The Campaign will take the following action:

• Using popular education and mobilisation to deepen understandings of the tools and importance of access to information;
• Continuing the use of PAIA as a legal tool that can be rooted in community mobilisation (workshops and protest action);
• Coordinating mobilisation, media and popular education strategies to highlight challenges to access to information across society;
• Championing open data and proactive release of information;
• Using the new Office of the Information Regulator to force greater compliance with access to information;
• Developing a national database of PAIA requests made by R2K.

Resolutions on Whistleblowing

The Campaign will take the following action:

• Tackling both the legal and political environment in defending whistleblowers;
• Continuing to raise awareness of whistleblowers as heroes from all walks of life, through public statements and media campaigns, as well as through solidarity events, road shows and rallies;
• Giving whistleblowers a public face and creating opportunities for dialogue with whistleblowers;
• Pushing for and participating in amendments to the whistleblower law, the Protected Disclosures Act;
• Popularising the ‘Whistleblower’s Charter’ which acts as a guideline for a “people’s whistleblowing law”;
• Engaging unions to support a programme to protect and defend whistleblowers.

Resolutions on the Right to Protest

The Campaign will take the following action:

• Pushing back against a culture of suppression that has developed towards protest by enforcing compliance with the minimum requirements of the law (for example, ‘giving notice’ rather than ‘seeking permission’);
• Developing collective ‘rules of engagement’ as communities when organising gatherings, regarding what we are willing to do (e.g. notifying authorities within a certain period) and what we are not willing to do (e.g. paying a fee for a gatherings permit)
• Continuing and deepening popular education on the right to protest, including educating and engaging police, policing unions, community policing forums and authorities who disregard or do not know the Act
• We must be prepared to challenge aspects of the Gatherings Act where it is used to undermine the right to protest
• Documenting our protests and potential abuses of the right to protest using video, audio and writing
• Raising awareness of surveillance or harassment of protestors by state-security structures;
• Engaging mainstream and community media on our issues and how to report on our protests more accurately;
• Hosting public events and protests targeting SAPS and highlighting police brutality.

Resolutions on Secrecy

The Campaign will take the following action on the Secrecy Bill:

• Challenging the Protection of State Information Bill (the Secrecy Bill) through the courts if required – reaffirming our 2013 resolution;
• Rooting any legal action in a broader strategy of mobilisation and popular education that communicates the problems with the Secrecy Bill and purpose of our challenge;
• Collecting and distributing wrongfully classified information that is in the public domain as a defiance campaign

The Campaign will take the following action on the National Key Points Act:

• Bringing an application in terms of the Promotion of Access to Information Act and other relevant laws and constitutional provisions for the release of information in relation to the national key points;
• Strengthening the popular understanding of NKP abuses and using the information we have gathered to highlight security-state abuses;
• Forming a focus group to develop a broader strategy;
• Continuing and intensifying direct action (such as protests, pickets, picnics) at NKPs to highlight its abuses.

The Campaign will take the following action on security-state abuses:

• Documenting instances of abuse and harassment of activists by state-security structures;
• Increasing popular education of this phenomenon as part of the ‘right to protest’ to ensure activists are aware of the risks and have guidelines for how to respond;
• Submitting a mass complaint to Inspector General of Intelligence
• Developing a framework of minimum requirements for from the intelligence services.

The Campaign will take the following action on other key secrecy issues:

• Supporting efforts to access evidence that is being hidden from the public at the Arms Procurement Commission of Inquiry;
• Monitoring potential abuses of secrecy in future large-scale procurement, including the ‘Nuclear Deal’;

• Participating in popular education initiatives on party funding secrecy and pushing for Parliament to create legislation for transparency in party funding.

Resolutions on the Right to Communicate

The Campaign will take the following action on public and community media:

• Campaigning for the inclusion of social-justice content, such as Miners Shot Down on the SABC and community media;
• Joining and supporting action against political interference at the SABC and community media;
• Campaigning for an annual grant to support community media
• Raising awareness in communities on their rights with regard to ownership and access to community media organisations.

The Campaign will take the following action on the ICT Green Paper process:

• We will engage in the ICT Green Paper review to ensure that R2K issues are .

The Campaign will take the following action on democratising digital television:

• Campaigning for free set top boxes to be made available to all: “free-to-air” public service television should be FREE!
• Building deeper understanding of digital migration issues through popular education

The Campaign will take the following action on Vula ‘maConnexion:

• Collecting signatures on a petition of cellular phone users who have lost money due to airtime expiring.
• Raising the matter of stolen airtime with the Competition Commission.
• Promoting the Vula ’maConnexion campaign via various platforms, but especially via community media.

Resolution on Building the Right2Know

Solidarity with local Struggles

Right2Know will support organisations rather than lead on actions relating to the mission of the campaign. We resolve to:

1. • Ensure that all solidarity action includes a written explanation of our involvement and the link to the Right2Know mission that will be posted to our website, form the basis of pamphlets, etc;
   • Find ways of expressing solidarity that are effective without being resource intensive;
   • Develop a ‘we want to know…’ poster that we can make available at all solidarity actions;
   • Develop a clear solidarity guideline, with input from the provinces.

Building Beyond our urban nodes, Right2Know will:

• Guard against ‘parachuting’ into areas, creating expectations, and undermining existing organisations;
• Work with and strengthen partnerships with other organisations based on shared principles;
• Approach traditional leaders as well as ward councillors, engage with heads of schools, churches, villages/communities;
• Use R2K’s profile and communication platforms to draw attention to and support rural struggles.

Orientation to Coalitions & Fronts

Progressive forces in South Africa are experiencing a period of rejuvenation and there are a number of initiatives that are seeking greater unity and coordination of struggle.

• Right2Know must engage these processes to strengthen and shape them, guided by the following principles:

1. • Coalitions/fronts should to be non-sectarian and based on mutual respect
   • Coalitions/fronts should have mechanisms for accountability and internal democracy
   • Any engagement must include action and not only meetings
   • Any engagement is to be informed by our 2011 principles and values in unity and struggles
   • R2K must maintain our autonomy and independence
   • Individual structures / members are free to join fronts and coalitions

• While we will actively engage, we will not formally endorse or join any coalition/front that does not address these guidelines. The decision to formally endorse any coalition/front must be fully supported by all provincial and national working groups.

Activist code of conduct:

• We will continue to build the Campaign as a democratic, activist-driven organisation.
• Inspired by the APF code of conduct, R2K collectively Activist Code of Conduct (Annexure X)
• This Code will be discussed in Provincial Working Groups, and will be amended and adopted by the NWG within two months;
• The primary purpose of the Code is to guide how we relate to one other as comrades and to hold one another accountable. To support the Code we will develop a R2K disciplinary procedure.
• We should adopt a formal induction process for new members to ensure they are familiar with the work, nature and policies of the organisation