Our work in South Africa began in 1956 with a grant of ₤250 allocated to feed poor children in South Africa. These feeding programmes continued throughout the 1960s when over ₤90,000 was allocated to various agencies involved in a number of feeding projects. Our programme gradually expanded as a network of contacts was built, mainly with church representatives, involving a range of development activities in townships and rural areas.

By 1985 Oxfam had taken on more human rights-related work and was supporting 27 advice offices as well as having made a substantial grant towards the establishment of the Legal Resource Centre (LRC) in Port Elizabeth. Advice offices staffed by paralegals played a critical role in assisting victims of the worst abuses of the apartheid era. The LRC became the largest non-government legal service provider in South Africa and is highly respected in international human rights and legal circles.

In 1993, we opened the South Africa country office in Johannesburg. Over the years, we have supported a wide range of local organisations and communities mainly in rural areas of the Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal and Free State provinces.

Oxfam in South Africa

Our current programme – Tackling Inequality by Supporting a New Agenda for South Africa’s Development – is an advocacy and campaigning programme. It recognises that inequality is a fundamental driver of poverty in South Africa and is worsened and perpetuated by HIV and AIDS and gender inequality. The programme focuses on the most marginalised people in South African society, that is, women and children affected by HIV and AIDS and women suffering from domestic violence. The geographical focus of our work is in Welkom and Qwa Qwa in the Free State province. The province is home to some of the highest levels of poverty, violence and HIV infections in the country.

At a national level we support South African organisations that campaign for improved health services, better responses to the HIV and AIDS and ending gender-based violence.  Our support for national initiatives involves supporting strategic events and encouraging unity among civil society organisations and improved collaboration with the government.

Our programme focuses on four areas:

• Creating effective and accountable systems of social delivery.  The focus is on health services that are effective in dealing with the HIV and Aids pandemic and responsive to the specific needs of women and the obstacles that they can face in accessing services.
• Ending gender inequality and gender-based violence (GBV).  This involves work at the local level supporting survivors of GBV, challenging ideas and beliefs that lead to GBV, and, at the national level, changing policies and programmes that impact on the prevalence of and responses to GBV.
• Developing new approaches to investment and the distribution of the benefits of growth to ensure that South Africa's approach to economic development contributes to overcoming poverty and inequality.  This area of work is currently being taken forward with a collection of research projects.
• Encouraging and supporting South Africa to utilise its full potential as a regional and global leader in overcoming poverty, inequality and conflict.

Last updated: November 06