This is Part 2 of the panel discussion at the Women in Business conference at Gibs. A little disclaimer. These are merely a reflection from their engagement and not word by word what each speaker stated.

Part 1

Second up is the political analyst Eusebius McKaiser. What can civil society do? What we discovered is that Civil Society often positions itself as an extension of opposition political parties. We find they will act after a piece of legislation has been enacted. This unfortunately takes a lot of time and money. It is important for civil society to not only react to pieces of legislation, but to think of themselves as business outfits, with a value proposition of engaging with the policy design and development of policy prior to it's release into the legislature. It needs to engage before the final outputs.

The second thing is what happens after the 'court victory' when civil society has won in an initiative. We seem to have a weakness in compliance to court issues. It is important to keep tabs on compliance with that kind of legislation. The most successful model in keeping tabs on compliance is the work done by the AID NGO's in South Africa. They are good examples of keeping tabs (like an organisation like Section 27). They have been very effective in holding government to the decisions made. Sometimes a second threat of court action is required to ensure that actions are taken. We need to be closely involved in the process of law making, and secondly we need to use the law to your advantage by constant monitoring of outcomes.

Lastly, the limits of the law. Sadly in South Africa, one of the biggest challenges we face is the growing gap between the constitution and people's attitudes. The point from the Commissioner is that we need to not get over excited about the fantastic instruments that we have in the law. The tragedy is that the law does not dictate social attitudes. The positive side is that you can think of yourself as a mini-activist. But you should be vigilant between the odd comment in the workplace slide, but also picking your battles very carefully. Sometimes you need to challenge the norms that may define people's responses (for example in performance management).

Another practical way to be an agent of change, is to make sure that you get proper recognition for your strengths in the organisation.

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