By Kouthar Sambo
Allegations have run rampant after the Ahmed Kathrada Foundation (AFK) and Defend Our Democracy (DOD) came under immense criticism for allegedly cooperating and forming partnerships with United States (US) CIA-funded organisations.
AFK supporters in uproar
Speaking on VOC’s PM Drive show, Executive member of the Palestine Solidarity Alliance Firoza Mayet said it is mind-boggling how NGOs participating in this initiative cannot see the contradictions of this situation.
“It is an integral part of this National Endowment for Democracy (NED), operating on the level of the US state, amid the US elections and a genocide unfolding in Gaza – the US is moving more towards fascism. The objective can only be to maintain US hegemony and these organisations cannot see this,” Mayet stressed.
The NED
Meanwhile, a representative of the Media Review Network, Mariam Jooma, who wrote an article challenging the narrative and hypocrisy of South African local organisation forming partnerships with US-funded organizations, argued the move defeats the objective of the cause.
She noted the desperation and lack of funding local organisations experience, causing a form of compromise along the way.
“We need to look at foreign funding for our local civic organisations and NGOs and understand the extent to which agendas that are not in line with our national interests influence those organisations,” explained Jooma.
In her article, Jooma delved into the origin of NED and what the organisation stands for. She classified NED as:
“The NED is widely considered a civilian front for the CIA. According to its website, the NED will host the World Movement for Democracy’s 12th Global Assembly in Johannesburg from November 20-24, 2024, marking 30 years of South Africa’s democracy and drawing over 500 civil society leaders.”
“The U.S’ critical support of the ongoing genocide in Palestine, while lecturing the world on human rights, is a recent example of this cognitive dissonance. When the global decolonial movement gained momentum in the 1960s, the U.S. systematically targeted people-centered revolutions. One of the most notorious cases was the U.S.-Belgian-led assassination of Congo’s first democratically elected Prime Minister, Patrice Lumumba, whose death destabilized the resource-rich country for generations,” she detailed in her article.
Defend Our Democracy’s stance
Furthermore, The DOD’s National Committee Member Dr. Rekgotsofetse Chikane provided context, saying that a global assembly with an organisation called World Movement for Democracy.
“One of their funders is called the NED which is a democracy-promoting wing for the US.”
“Funding in civil society is hard and a lot of organisations get international funding from Europe and America, but the question is when you do get funding: can you hold onto your values?” challenged Chikane.
VOC News has reached out to Ahmed Kathrada Foundation but there has been no response at the time of publishing
Photo: Media Review Network
