The team at ACT Ubumbano is excited to be back at work, and we hope your festive break allowed you to have quality time with your family and friends. We need to be refreshed and re-energised to take on the challenges of making our world different and better.

This year is full of promise, and we hope we can improve our capacity to be in solidarity with those who struggle for justice and dignity in their lives and their communities. We spent a day near the Cradle of Humankind outside Joburg to reflect a little on our work, and to put in place some plans for the year. A lot of these plans are dependent on us securing funding for a new cycle, so please be patient as we engage with our funding partners.

We will soon be inviting proposals for small grants to support local social justice actions in the region. Watch this space – if you receive the newsletter you will also get the call for proposals when it happens. Check your junk mail folder.

The Solidarity Hub last year was a great success, and confirmed the need expressed by activists for spaces to reflect and connect. We will be announcing dates for this year’s event and are looking at the possibility of a Solidarity Hub in Europe to engage with our partners there as well.

There are places in our region where solidarity is more important than ever. We mourn the death by assassination of Thulani Maseko in Swaziland. He was a beacon of hope for his people and allies across the world. We hold his family in our hearts at this time of great sorrow. ACT Ubumbano stands in solidarity with those who fight to have their dignity restored.

We perserve, and hope that our collaboration with you this year is uplifting and fruitful. We look forward to sharing energy, insight, passion and commitment to make solidarity and justice real and meaningful.

Based at Holy Trinity Catholic Church in Braamfontein, Holy Trinity LGBTI Ministry is one of the Social Apostolate Ministries run and coordinated by queer members of the parish. The idea of the ministry started as that of a support group by one of the parishioners, Ricus Dullaert, after realizing the number of queer people within the parish had approached him to start such a community. With the help of well-wishers, the ministry has managed to assist its member with rent, groceries and transport fares to Home Affairs to acquire documentation.

You can reach the Holy Trinity LGBTI Ministry at lgbti@trinityjhb.co.za.

Date Published: 17 January 2023
Deadline for Proposals: 10h00 on 15 February 2023

ACT Ubumbano invites Service Providers to provide Technical and Financial Proposals for the provision of Travel Management services to the organisation. The required services include, but are not limited to, the following:

Travel Management support to the staff with the following guidelines:

• Dedicated staff to handle ACT Ubumbano’s travel requests
• Reservation and Ticketing
• Provision of Airfares and Airline Routings/Itineraries
• Provision of Travel Information/Advisories
• Travel bookings for convenings (events can have up to 80 participants)
• Tickets Cancellation, Rebooking and Refunds
• Emergency Services 24h (including weekends and holidays)
• Relations with Airlines and other suppliers
• Services Quality Control and continuous improvements
• Providing an interface with major Airlines to get the best corporate deals

The Service Provider will be selected to enter into a service agreement (hereinafter referred to as the “contract”) for two years. An extension of the contract can be agreed upon with the expressed agreement of both parties at the end of the first 2-year cycle. Specific orders may be issued for additional specific assignments.

Service Providers are kindly requested to send proposals by e-mail to hub@actubumbano.org by no later than 10h00 (10am) on 15 February 2023. No late proposal shall be accepted.

Requests for clarification can be submitted to the above e-mail addresses at least 7 calendar days before the set deadline. ACT Ubumbano reserves the right to annul the selection process and reject all proposals at any time prior to contract award, without thereby incurring any liability to affected Service Providers.

Instructions to Service Providers

1. The proposal shall be the basis for contract negotiations and ultimately for a signed contract with the selected Service Provider.
2. Service Providers should familiarize themselves with local/regional conditions and needs of the team, and take them into account in preparing the proposal. ACT Ubumbano currently works in Eswatini, Malawi, Mozambique, South Africa, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.
3. The Service Providers’ costs of preparing the proposal and of negotiating the contract will not be reimbursed as a direct cost of the assignment.
4. ACT Ubumbano shall provide, at no cost to the Service Provider the necessary inputs needed to carry out the services and make available relevant project data and reports.

Technical Proposal

It is desirable that the majority of the key professional staff proposed are permanent employees of the firm or have an extended and stable working relationship with it.

The Technical Proposal shall provide a brief description of the Service Provider’s organisation and an outline of recent experience on assignments of a similar nature. The description should explain how the Service Provider has the required capacity to deliver all services listed above, and how it approaches such assignments

Financial Proposal

Service Providers will provide a cost estimate based on the requirements and conditions outlined above. This financial proposal should include provision for VAT and shall be presented in South African Rands (ZAR).

The Financial Proposal shall be valid for 2 (two) months. ACT Ubumbano will make its best effort to complete negotiations and determine the award within the validity period. If ACT Ubumbano wishes to extend the validity period of the proposals, the Service Providers have the right not to extend the validity of the proposals.

Watch a brief video [2 mins 4 sec] for highlights of ACT Ubumbano’s activities in 2022.

The team at ACT Ubumbano wish everyone a happy holiday season, and for those who celebrate the birth of Christ at this time, may the joy of Christmas be with you, your family and your community. It is a time to find strength in each other so that we can go into the new year renewed in our commitment to love, dignity, justice and solidarity with those under stress. The team will take some time off, and the office will be closed from 15^th December until the first week of January 2023.

There was great enthusiasm to attend the first in-person Solidarity Hub since 2019. Over 80 activists, faith leaders, NGO and community workers gathered in Johannesburg to reflect on their social justice practice and to find opportunities for collaboration in deepening solidarity with those who struggle for dignity. The vibrant conversations and creative forms of interacting and reporting will be made available in different forms in the new year. For now, you can see images of the Hub here.

Faith Actors for Justice has been a two-year collaboration between ACT Ubumbano, Faith to Action Network, Bread for the World, the World Council of Churches – Ecumenical HIV & AIDS Initiatives and Advocacy and ACT Alliance. In November this partnership hosted a four day conference in Nairobi with over 80 participants from across Africa. The event marked the culmination of a 2-year consultative process aimed at advancing women’s rights in Africa through strengthening faith actors’ capacity in gender, contextual bible studies, and sharing of good practices. A report and statement agreed by participating faith leaders will be shared. #FaithActors4Justice.

SRWA was formed on the 08th of March 2011 and registered in October 2013. It was started by a group of rural women who came together after experiencing escalating injustices, closed women space for association and participation, violence against fellow women and the violation of environmental rights in Swaziland. Women and girls face poverty, discrimination, gender-based violence and are the most hard-hit by the HIV/AIDS pandemic. These women went to mobilize other women around the country through door-to-door campaigns, public meetings and community dialogues and debates.

You can reach the Swaziland Rural Women’s Assembly at esrwa.swaziland@gmail.com.