Get It Off Your Chest

South Africa is buzzing over one of the most unexpected civil society partnerships in recent memory. AfriForum and the March and March Movement have announced the formation of a joint working group, led by March and March founder Jacinta Ngobese-Zuma and AfriForum CEO Kallie Kriel, aiming to pool grassroots resources to address border security, community safety, public education and illegal immigration. On the surface it looks like an odd pairing, AfriForum is a right-wing, largely white Afrikaner rights group, while March and March is a black-led South African nationalist and anti-immigration movement whose rhetoric has been accused of xenophobia. For March and March, the foundation of this relationship rests on universal human rights, constitutional accountability and the spirit of ubuntu, but not everyone is convinced. The alliance has sparked fierce debate online, with some praising the collaboration as practical civil society action and others calling it bizarre and politically motivated. We want to know what you think, is this the kind of cross-racial civil society partnership South Africa needs, or is something else going on here?