Oxfam campaign 'too political'

Oxfam is a well known international charity concerned with the relief of poverty, one of the fundamental charitable purposes. Some years ago the agency was working in Soweto, South Africa and in part of their literature took a position on apartheid as a governmental, economic and social system.

Oxfam felt that much of the poverty, disadvantage and deprivation they were addressing were attributable to the effects of apartheid - and they said so. A few members of the public complained that it was not part of Oxfam's charitable purposes to publicly express their views about the government of another country.

The Charity Commission rapped Oxfam's knuckles on some aspects of their campaign material but no formal action was taken against trustees of the charity. Put simply, the argument from Oxfam was that its campaign and material presented information about the apartheid system as it impacted on the people with whom the agency works. The contrary view would be that no charity has the right to pronounce on the governmental structures and policies of another country. In reality, of course, Oxfam would not have been able to operate effectively in South Africa without having a view about the apartheid system.