When black people move into positions of power, the power moves away from the position as well: this is an argument made by the newly released Social Justice Sector Review Report.
The RAITH Foundation report, titled: Critical reflections on the social justice sector in the Post-Apartheid era, asserts that fault lines of privilege and power continue to affect funding and divide the civil society sector.
“Unacknowledged white privilege and power have caused much pain and anger in the sector. The sense of complicity between race and resources became increasingly clear as young black women assumed leadership positions. Although more black women are now in leadership positions, questions remain about how this has shifted institutional culture, if at all.
“Black women step into leadership positions at a disadvantage, due to not being connected to resources in the same way that white men in leadership roles were. Funding conditions have become more demanding, and an apparent new focus on accountability has left many black women feeling undermined by former white bosses, or being labelled as ‘angry black women’ in the workplace,” said the report.
The report found that most organisations had undertaken little reflection on what constituted a dynamic transformative process.
“Leadership determines institutional culture, and the dominance of white men, and later white women, in leadership positions has influenced core attributes of the sector, as well as the culture of organisations. The fluid community structures from the early 1990s have morphed into professionalised NGOs.
“This seemingly elitist structure was reinforced by donors who felt comfortable with the more formal structure and trusted the white leadership who shaped these organisations. Without questioning, the official language of organisations was always English, notwithstanding the communities who lay at the heart of the sector’s work,” said the report.
The “founder syndrome” includes the failure of founders to inculcate an experienced new layer of leadership and skills, the report quoted a 2020 Kagiso Trust report as stating.
“This includes a need for new leadership to develop social capital and networks, including among the corporate sector.
“Representation is not a numbers game, and a truly representative sector across staff, leadership and governance is critical if the sector is to reflect the values and priorities of beneficiaries in terms of class, race and gender. Transformation of the sector is principally defined in terms of gender and race of organisational leaders,” said the report.
A contributor to the report said: “One of the transformation things we see all over is, when black people move into positions of power, the power moves away from the position as well.”
The lack of women leadership in the social justice sector and in organised labour is frequently caused by the social obligations that rest overwhelmingly on women, for example, to act as primary caregivers.
