{"id":253204,"date":"2023-03-15T19:13:34","date_gmt":"2023-03-15T17:13:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.groundup.org.za\/article\/social-justice-coalition-temporarily-shut-its-doors-less-than-a-year-after-manager-investigated-and-charged-with-fraud\/"},"modified":"2023-03-15T19:13:34","modified_gmt":"2023-03-15T17:13:34","slug":"social-justice-coalition-battling-to-stay-afloat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/social-justice-coalition-battling-to-stay-afloat\/","title":{"rendered":"Social Justice Coalition battling to stay afloat"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The Social Justice Coalition (SJC) is battling to stay afloat during investigations into financial mismanagement by a top employee. Archive photo: Ashraf Hendricks<\/p>\n

Once one of Cape Town\u2019s foremost social movements, the Social Justice Coalition (SJC) is battling to stay afloat in the midst of investigations into financial mismanagement by a top employee.<\/p>\n

Former SJC general manager Xolani Klaas made a brief appearance at the Khayelitsha Magistrates Court on Tuesday. He faces charges related to fraud in excess of R730,000.<\/p>\n

Last year, a GroundUp investigation r<\/a>eported that Klaas appeared to be using SJC funds to buy furniture, household appliances, luxury clothes, watches, groceries, and expensive technology.<\/p>\n

Klaas was subsequently suspended and SJC staff laid criminal charges<\/a> against him at Lingelethu West Police Station. In July, we reported that Klaas had returned some furniture<\/a>, purchased using SJC money, to the organisation\u2019s offices.<\/p>\n

Alongside the court process, the SJC says, its internal investigation into Klaas\u2019s actions is still underway. A handful of staff at the organisation are still keeping track of major matters they have been lobbying for, such as the fight for better sanitation and police resources in poor and crime-riddled communities. But they are no longer taking on new matters or providing other services they were known for.<\/p>\n

SJC treasurer Zama Mthunzi told GroundUp there were \u201cmajor delays\u201d in the completion of the Klaas investigation because the SJC no longer has staff.<\/p>\n

Mthunzi said: \u201cThe organisation has no money and can\u2019t pay staff, so people have left. All funders have suspended sending monies owed to the SJC because Xolani\u2019s fraud has broken funding agreements. They [funders] are awaiting the outcome of the investigation to determine if they will continue to fund the organisation.\u201d<\/p>\n

A few former staff members, including political educator Bonga Zamisa, are \u201ctrying to keep the organisation afloat\u201d by volunteering their time, Zamisa said.<\/p>\n

Founded on 16 June 2008, the SJC is a membership-based social movement with 17 branches across Cape Town communities like Khayelitsha, Kraaifontein, Crossroads, and Gugulethu.<\/p>\n

The SJC fought for the introduction of the janitorial service<\/a> which is now a basic necessity for thousands of families at informal settlements. The service, provided through the City of Cape Town\u2019s Expanded Public Works Programme, employs people to clean and maintain communal toilets in informal settlements.<\/p>\n

The SJC was one of the organisations at the forefront of fighting for a Commission of Inquiry<\/a> into police inefficiency and lack of resources in Khayelitsha and other communities.<\/p>\n

Klaas is due back in court on 13 April.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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\u00a9 2023 GroundUp. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Source: GroundUp<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Social Justice Coalition (SJC) is battling to stay afloat during investigations into financial mismanagement by a top employee. Archive photo: Ashraf Hendricks Once one of Cape Town\u2019s foremost social movements, the Social Justice Coalition (SJC) is battling to stay afloat in the midst of investigations into financial mismanagement by a top employee. Former SJC […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":253205,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[9928],"tags":[28001],"class_list":{"0":"post-253204","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-groundup","8":"tag-groundup","9":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/social-justice-coalition-battling-to-stay-afloat.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253204","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=253204"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253204\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/253205"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=253204"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=253204"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=253204"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}