Velaphi Mamba’s passion for human rights and activism has seen him support various programmes that pushed for social justice in a number of African countries.
“I have always been a human rights activist at heart and what attracted me to OSISA are those values. The organisation drives a very powerful and ambitious human rights agenda and goal for democratisation on the African continent.”
Velaphi Mamba has always been a human rights activist at heart and while he has left OSISA, he retains the shared values and ambitious human rights agenda which drew him to serve at the organisation for over a decade.
Mamba’s passion for human rights and activism has seen him support various programmes that pushed for social justice in a number of African countries.
Serving human rights since he was a student, Mamba continues to fearlessly believe in justice and human rights. While he humbly downplays his contribution, Mamba’s legacy at OSISA lives on through the impact his work made in areas like health, women’s rights, economic justice, and education, among other things.
“By the time I left I was Team Leader for the economic and social justice cluster. We focused on economic justice, health and education rights. There is a lot of other work that normatively falls within that development domain like housing policy, access to clean water, energy and others. But because of limited resources, we streamlined the work to focus on the three areas because of their intersectionality and direct impact to peoples’ lived experiences. We looked at them in ways that cut across and included human rights, democracy, and good governance,” Mamba explains.
He says that under the economic justice pillar, they decided to focus mainly on challenging neo-liberal economic frameworks that informed how economies are governed and regulated. This flowed from the realisation that orthodox economic policies were dismally failing to deliver economic and social justice for people across the continent.
“We also did work on sovereign debt in Africa. We realised that a lot of our countries are trapped in sovereign indebtedness. If you look at countries like Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Zambia and others, you can see they are in massive debt distress, and this is not a new reality in terms of the fight for a just and broad pathway to sustainable equitable economic development.”
He says they took the work around debt seriously, as it was something that could potentially harm generations upon generations, especially in the context of historical and ecological debt realities faced by African countries.
“We took the work on debt very seriously as it will not only affect the current generation, but it will also likely impact two to four generations from now. How will it be just to transfer it from us to future generations?” Mamba asks.
“I have always been a human rights activist at heart and what attracted me to OSISA are those values. They drive a very ambitious human rights agenda and goal for democratisation on the African continent. OSISA had very intelligent people and resources behind them. This was a huge motivating factor, and I am sure many of my colleagues are social justice advocates as well.”
He said the organisation allowed passions to be pursued and manifested.
“At the centre was this idea of an open society that is informed by good values and placing people at heart and centre, and understanding that people do not eat democracy, that it is a means to an end and therefore a rights agenda is demonstrably making better the lives of the people and ensuring that quality services are able to be discharged towards citizens.”
Among the things he appreciated at OSISA was that the organisation allowed for risk taking and provided an empowering intellectual space.
Mamba states that the health and education rights programmes looked at what citizens were due; they believed focusing on these sectors had a positive downstream effect on the economy and democracy alike.
“We know, for example, that an educated society is less likely to go to war and more likely to create wealth. The immediate positive accruals from education are without doubt. Access to health is also a big enabler of a productive society. If people are not well, they are not able to participate in society. If you look at absenteeism reports from work, you see that is mainly due to poor health and that affects productivity and the economy,” Mamba explains.
He adds that there was a strong focus on marginalised communities like women, persons with disabilities, indigenous groups, LGBTQ+ groups and learners from low-resourced communities.
“The idea was to create broad coalitions that ensure governments are held accountable, where citizens will be supported to campaign for the right to education. Ensuring that people had equitable access to health and education is one of the highlights I am proud to have worked with my team on.”
A highlight of Mamba’s experience with OSISA was the organisation’s COVID-19 response, which gave grants for laboratories and the procurement of masks, other non-pharmaceutical prevention products, and food commodities needed by citizens. The COVID-19 response was seminal in the sense that it was not only a novel area of work but also a challenging one that required all parts of the organisation to come together to ensure effectiveness, efficiency, and impact in the context of the many unknowns that the pandemic represented.
“Those are some of the highlights that stand out for me. The centrepiece is the question of driving human rights-based approaches and thinking about sustainable and impactful grant making that will likely have depth and impact in the field.”
After being at the organisation from 2010 to 2022, Mamba left to pursue further studies. He adds that while contributions made by organisations like OSISA have been beneficial, Africa still has a long way to go.
“I like to look at the continent as a glass that is half full and rising. I am cautious to be a pessimist and to look only at the terrible things taking place in the continent. We have come a long way and we have built vibrant social movements that are doing stellar work,” he says.
“There is room for improvement. I believe the future looks bright and I will not hesitate to say there are massive developmental challenges ahead that will need more risk taking, character and courage in terms of where we want to take the African continent.”
