heks

In South Africa political apartheid has given way to economic apartheid. It is fourteen years since the birth of democracy in South Africa and there has been precious little improvement in the plight of the poorest people.

The number of people living in townships is not going down - a fact which leads to huge problems with poverty, violence and inequality. The rate of unemployment is running at 40 per cent and yet South Africa is seen as the Eldorado of the African continent. The vast majority of the unemployed live in the townships. Several million migrants - including two to three million Zimbabweans - live in South Africa, some of them illegally. Xenophobia is rife, and racially motivated acts of violence are a regular occurrence. The spread of HIV/AIDS is also rampant, with the rate reaching 25 per cent in some provinces, such as KwaZulu-Natal.

Aims, points of focus, initiatives:

HEKS concentrates its efforts on three provinces in South Africa: Johannesburg, Limpopo and KwaZulu-Natal. The main aims are as follows:

1. To promote peace and strengthen civil society
2. To develop rural communities and secure food supplies

A number of different aspects come together in all the projects run by our partners, espousing such principles as gender equality and the “Do No Harm” approach (which seeks to limit the harmful effects brought about by outside intervention). Another key strength of this regional programme will be the fight against the AIDS pandemic which is ravaging southern Africa. Our partners are being asked to factor this issue into all their projects.

Issues connected with migration also constitute a major part of the work of HEKS in South Africa.