Bringing Freire to socio-economic rights : a pedagogy for meaningful engagement

• Author: Michelle Du Toit
• DOI: 10.10520/EJC-13bd80dd5d
• Published date: 01 December 2018
• Date: 01 December 2018
• Record Number: sapr1_v33_n2_a4
• Pages: 1-23

Southern African Public Law

https://doi.org/10.25159/2522-68 00/3946

https://upjournals.co.za/index.php/SAPL

ISSN 2522-6800 (Online)

Volume 33 | Number 2 | 2018 | #3946 | 23 pages

© Unisa Press 2018

Article

Bringing Freire to Socio-economic Rights: A Pedagogy

for Meaningful Engagement

Michelle du Toit1

https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8343-7301

Independent Researcher

m.dutoit@atlanticfellows.org

Abstract

This article considers what it is that makes meaningful engagement meaningful

in the adjudication of socio-economic rights. The pursuit of socio-economic

transformation relies on citizen participation, as recognised by the South

African Constitution and mandated by the Constitutional Court. This article

relies on Paulo Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed to substantiate an

understanding of and motivation for meaningful engagement as a concept. This

academic venture is premised on the notion that meaningful engagement (akin

to Freire’s education and liberation theories) should occur with, not for, the

afflicted. The article examines what is conceptually necessary for engagement

to be truly meaningful and empowering and not to entrench power dynamics.

Strong emphasis is placed on the fact that the afflicted need to be involved in

changing their circumstances (as they need to be involved in their liberation and

education) and that the source of the problem—in this case socio-economic

inequality, deprivation or violation—cannot also be the sole source of the

solution. Meaningful engagement with the afflicted circumvents a perpetual

entrenchment of oppression, to use Freire’s own terminology. A Freirean

approach to meaningful engagement could potentially result in effective socio-

economic transformation and the disruption of patterns of socio-economic

inequality and disempowerment. The relationship between the afflicted and

those in power is questioned for its intention—an intention that is also disrupted

1 This article is inspired by and dedicated to my fellow Azanian Tekano Atlantic Fellows—who have

taught me what I don’t know and who epitomise meaningful engagement. My thanks go to the two

anonymous reviewers for their insightful comments and critiques, which are much appreciated. Any

remaining errors are my own.

2

by a Freirean approach to empowering the afflicted and recognising their

agency, political capacity and human dignity.

Keywords: socio-economic rights; meaningful engagement; Freire; Pedagogy of the

Oppressed; transformation; participatory democracy; human dignity; political capacity

Introduction

To the oppressed,

And to those who suffer with them

And fight at their side.2

South Africa is plagued with socio-economic inequalities inherited from its colonial and

apartheid past. Despite more than two decades having passed since the enactment of the

Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996, which provides socio-economic

rights to all and seeks to ‘[h]eal the divisions of the past’, stark inequalities still exist.

Because of the colonial and apartheid past which haunts present-day South Africa, these

socio-economic inequalities exist in entrenched racial determination, with the black

African majority still burdened by the atrocities of white supremacy. Socio-economic

transformation is necessary to achieve the constitutional aim to ‘[i]mprove the quality

of life of all citizens and free the potential of each person.’3

In pursuit of transformation, the Constitution recognises socio-economic rights and

subscribes to the principles of democracy, which necessitates citizen participation.

South African socio-economic rights jurisprudence recognises the need for meaningful

engagement both as a facet of reasonableness and as a remedial procedure.4

Participation and engagement are a means of providing a voice to affected parties in

matters concerning their interests. Academic debate has increasingly focused on

meaningful engagement as a procedure and how it can contribute to the context-sensitive

adjudication of socio-economic rights.5 However, there is a lack of clarity about what

2 Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed (Continuum 1973) Dedication.

3 Preamble to the Constitution.

4 Lilian Chenwi, ‘“Meaningful Engagement” in the Realisation of Socio-Economic Rights: The South

African Experience’ (2011) 26 SAPL 128 at 135. See also Occupiers of 51 Olivia Road Berea

Township and 197 Main Street Johannesburg v City of Johannesburg 2008 (2) SA 208 (CC) para 17;

Residents of Joe Slovo Community, Western Cape v Thubelisha Homes 2010 (3) SA 454 (CC) at para

378; Mazibuko v City of Johannesburg 2010 (4) SA 1 (CC) at paras 133–134.

5 See Shanelle van der Berg, ‘Meaningful Engagement: Proceduralising Socio-Economic Rights Further

or Infusing Administrative Law with Substance?’ (2013) 29 SA J on Human Rights 377; Sandra

Liebenberg, ‘Engaging the Paradoxes of Universal and Particular in Rights Adjudication: The

Possibilities and Pitfalls of Meaningful Engagement’ (2012) 12 African Human Rights LJ 1 26;

Chenwi (n 4) 129.