READER’S DIGEST
July• 2019 | 41copies and got it translated. The
results revealed an elaborate deal,
and investigative reporters were able
to establish that the state president
had been secretly making numerous
trips to Russia as part of the negoti-
ations.
How could they fight this deal?
Makoma knew they needed a pow-
erful partner. She turned to Liz
McDaid, climate change coordinator
for the Southern Afri-
can Faith Communities
Environment Institute
(SAFCEI), located in
C a p e To w n.
The two women had
worked together before.
Liz had started out as a
teacher and educational
advocate before turning
to environmental jus-
tice. She, too, had been
very active in the strug-
gle against apartheid.
The two don’t like to
talk about their private
lives – they feel it is too risky for their
families. But they will say this: despite
their different backgrounds and skin
colours, they are much alike. “We have
strong value systems. We respect each
other. We work well together,” says Liz.
What they did, they stress, is not
about them as individuals. Rather,
they represent almost 60 organisa-
tions and thousands of citizens who
banded together to hold the govern-
ment accountable.
Says Francesca de Gasparis, exec-
utive director of SAFCEI, “Liz under-
stands the corridors of parliament
and Makoma has a very strong com-
munity-based activism. No one else
had the skill-sets to say, ‘We have got
to do this’.”
They held protests, vigils and
educational sessions to explain the
risks of the nuclear deal. They trav-
elled around the country. But they
knew they needed to
take key government
people and agencies
to court to get change.
It would require their
personal signatures
on the court affidavits.
Others were scared
of the ramifications.
Makoma and Liz were
not. They put their
names on the court
application, naming
the Department of En-
erg y, the National Par-
liament, the National
Energ y Regulator of South Africa and
then-President Jacob Zuma.
The court process took more than
two years. When they got word on
April 25, 2017, that the High Court
judge, Hon. Lee Bozalek, was about
to render his decision, Makoma had
to get down to Cape Town, 1400
kilometres away, fast. She packed
so quickly that she took a dress that
didn’t fit. The next morning she had
to rush into a local shop before the“It was
horrifying.
The deal was
illegal, and
it was going
to bankrupt
the country”