Hands off the CCS!

Patrick Craven, COSATU, 7 August 2008 

COSATU is dismayed to hear that the University of KwaZulu-Natal is considering closing its world-renowned Centre for Civil Society (CCS) on 31 December 2008 for what sound like paltry and quite possibly spurious reasons – that staff do not have "permanent" funding.

The CCS’s objective is “to advance socio-economic and environmental justice by developing critical knowledge about, for and in dialogue with, civil society through teaching, research and publishing” It was established at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in July 2001, with the mission of “promoting the study of South African civil society as a legitimate, flourishing area of scholarly activity”. A related goal was “to develop partnerships within civil society aimed at capacity-building, knowledge sharing, and generating reflection and debate”.

All such research institutions as the CCS are precious to COSATU, especially those like the CCS that are products of the 1994 democratic breakthrough, and not relics of the apartheid past.

The working class, which is the largest, most technically, socially and politically advanced component of civil society in our country, is acutely aware of the value of intellectual labour. COSATU sincerely hopes that the university administrators who want to close the CCS will quickly realise their mistake and instead of muttering threats, will now support this valuable institution.

If there is a genuine problem of finding funds for the unit, the government must step in to fund this important institution.

For more information on the CCS, please visit the CCS website at http://www.nu.ac.za/ccs/default.asp?2,40,5,1633

Patrick Craven, COSATU National Spokesperson, 011 339 4911, Cell 082 821 7456, patrick@cosatu.org.za