[PRESS STATEMENT] National Heritage Day 2020 | Building a #CollectiveCulture
The 24th of September, Heritage Day, in South Africa, is reserved as a national public holiday to celebrate the diverse cultures and traditions that make up South Africa’s contemporary social life.
South Africa’s history is scarred by divisive regimes including colonialism and apartheid which sought to create a segregated and unequal society through a racialized social structure. In celebrating South Africa’s liberation and the wealth of cultural diversity. This day of celebration enables the prioritisation of the all people from across the African continent and rest of the world who contribute to the rich cultures and forms of knowledge we have in South Africa today.
The theme for Heritage Day 2020 is ‘celebrating South Africa’s living treasures’[1]. In launching this theme Minister Nathi Mthethwa noted that the Department of Arts and Culture would ‘double-up the effort in ensuring that these suppressed knowledge forms receive the recognition and support they deserve; not only for aesthetic reasons, but also because of the potentiality of their political economy.’ This was also echoed by President of Republic of South Africa in his speech on the easing of lockdown alert level on the 16th September 2020 when he reiterated that “I urge everyone to use this public holiday as family time, to reflect on the difficult journey we have all travelled, to remember those who have lost their lives, and to quietly rejoice in the remarkable and diverse heritage of our nation”. He further indicated that it will take the combined effort of each and every South African to restore our nation to prosperity and development.
For inquiries or more information please contact: Thifulufheli Sinthumule (CoRMSA) thifulufheli@cormsa.org.za/+27 71 358 0059 or Muluti Phiri advocacy@cormsa.org.za/+27 71 15 00113 Abigail Dawson (CoRMSA) communications@cormsa.org.za/ +27 74 851 5683
What’s Happening This Week?
05 November-11th November
This week CoRMSA and its member organisations are organizing and apart of various activities and events in forwarding our mandate to promote and protect the human rights of refugees, migrants and asylum seekers in South Africa.
06 November 2018
The African Centre for Migration and Society (ACMS), a CoRMSA member organisation, is hosting their weekly seminar. This weeks seminar is titled: The spectacle versus the ordinary: Urban change and narratives of difference along a ‘Chinese’ street in suburban Johannesburg by Romain Dittgen (African Centre for Migration & Society, University of the Witwatersrand) and Gerald Chungu (School of Architecture and Planning, University of the Witwatersrand). Find the Facebook event here for more details.
08 November
Thifulufheli, CoRMSA’s director, will be in Windhoek Namibia from 8th-9th November attending the 16th Regional Seminar of EU-ACP Economic and Social Interest Groups. He will be presenting on projects that CoRMSA has developed and implemented in promoting and protecting the rights of refugees, migrants and asylum seekers. Read the background story to the seminar and engagements here.
Abigail will be attending the Migrants Psycho-Social Rights Forum hosted my Sophiatown Community Psychological Services. This forum brings together various Civil Society Organizations working with migrants including Lawyers for Human Rights, Future Families, CSVR and UNHCR. There are four task teams covering areas of access to healthcare, education, documentation and employment. These task teams collaborate to strengthen advocacy efforts to make these basic rights for refugees, migrants and asylum seekers attainable.
‘Keep them out’: Costs of South Africa’s Migration Policy
Today, 25th October CoRMSA is attending a roundtable discussion themed “keep them out: costs of South Africa’s Migration Policy” at the Institute for Security Studies (ISS) offices in Brooklyn, Pretoria. Panelists are Aimee-Noel Mbiyozo from ISS and Corey Johnson from The Scalabrini Centre in Cape Town chaired by Ottilia Anna Maunganidze from ISS.
The event is based on the new Policy Brief by Aimée-Noël Mbiyozo entitled ‘Aligning South Africa’s migration policies with its African vision’, to download the brief, click here. https://issafrica.org/media-resources/videos-and-infographics/iss-live-keep-them-out-costs-of-south-africas-migration-policy
Follow our social media feed for further updates on the panel discussion.
#EndStatelessness! Graphs on what to do if your child is undocumented
Lawyers for Human Rights has put together easy-to-use graphs on what to do if your child is undocumented. This is a useful resource for all those in the legal field or people seeking assistance.
Download graphs here
Final Civil Society Forum Communique and the SADC Summit Communique.
CoRMSA attended the SADC Civil Society Forum in Namibia in August 2018. Follow the links for the final communique from the forum is in the link. It is disappointing that migration has not been highlighted in this document, the issues raised by CoRMSA can be found on pages 4-5 of final communique.
The final Communique from the Windhoek SADC Summit can be found here.