“The closure of WDI is a loss,” said Motlatsi Komote, a researcher at the WDI. The Womxn and Democracy Initiative is yet another NGO that has succumbed to financial pressures.  

The initiative started out as the Parliamentary Programme. However, its main objective was to focus on the realisation of women’s and children’s rights, promoting citizenship and participation, and it was able to do this through promoting evidence-based and collective civil society advocacy. 

Project manager Sam Waterhouse describes it as “academic researchers who wanted to increase the advocacy potential of the research for human rights”.  

Functioning within a university came with its own concerns, but that allowed the initiative to “work with different organisations that work in communities directly, which we ourselves did not do”.  

Through that, they were able to bridge the gap and provide resources to organisations that did not always have that access.  

The loss will be felt as there are few organisations that are pushing “for the feminist way of thinking and interacting with people”, said Vivienne Mentor-Lalu, a facilitator at the WDI.  

Read more in Daily Maverick: “NGOs can’t tell stories as agents for change while fighting for a shrinking funding pool”  

From left, Motlatsi Komote, Samantha Waterhouse and Vivienne Mentor-Lalu are the last three remaining employees of Womxn and Democracy Initiative. The organisation will close in December 2022. (Photo: Tamara Wicomb)

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The reality of NGOs in South Africa  

As many NGOs are on the cusp of closure due to lack of funding, “you could see it coming a year and a half ago, when we weren’t getting purchase in the kind of donor organisations that do fund this work”, said Waterhouse.  

“There is a layer of reasons [for the closure of the WDI]”, said Waterhouse. 

The organisation has been very mindful of the work they do, and “we are not funding-driven”, said Mentor-Lalu.  

“The work will not end, just because the WDI has closed,” emphasised Komote.  

Real systematic change  

If you want real systematic change, you need to tackle the issues, said Mentor-Lalu.  

“It’s about women being involved in and even adding power and influence to decisions being made about them, and what laws they are actually participating in.” 

While the closure takes place, “we are not at peace, [as] we could still be doing the work”, said Waterhouse.  

“[However], we understand at this theoretical level why it may be necessary for the movement,” she said.  

As the initiative has come to a close, Waterhouse, Mentor-Lalu and Komote reflected on their motivating factors for doing this work. 

 “[I] care about the world we live in, and for me, I cannot not engage,” said Waterhouse.  

Growing up in the 1980s, Mentor-Lalu knew she wanted to work with the issues that caused violence.  

“Growing up in an environment where there were pockets of feminism, I see how important it is to have more feminist ways of being and thinking, [as it helps society in so many ways].” 

While the reality of their closing is sad, Komote concluded, “there’s a legacy that doesn’t get lost”. DM/MC