Funding Application Forms and Reporting Guidelines: Grantee Reporting Requirements (59 KB PDF) Apply Online to the OSF-SA		News Flashes OSF-SA partners with government and communities to promote safety Since 2008 the OSF-SA has been working in partnership with the departments of Community Safety in the Western Cape, Eastern Cape and Gauteng to support three pilot projects in each province. The three sites are Elsies River, Nompumelelo, and Orange Farm. The pilot project has engaged government departments and community stakeholders to focus on the dual demands of immediate crime prevention and long term safety promotion. On 2 February the Elsies River Multi-stakeholder Forum was launched. Please click here to read the speech delivered by the OSF-SA Executive Director. For information on each site please click on the links below: Elsies River (831KB PDF) Nompumelelo (814KB PDF) Orange Farm (781KB PDF) 2012 OSF-SA Board meeting dates First board meeting - 14 April The closing date for applications to be reviewed at the first board meeting is  Thursday 1 March 2012. Second board meeting - 28 July The closing date for applictions will be Wednesday 13 June 2012. Final board meeting - 24 November The closing date for applications will be Friday 12 October 2012. Paralegal Manual 2011 Published by Education and Training Unit & The Black Sash Click here to access Biennial Report 2010/2011 Click here to view the report. An election resource for journalists The Open Society Foundation for South Africa (OSF-SA), together with the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC), recently launched a local government elections manual for journalists and civil society. The manual has also been endorsed by the South African National Editor’s Forum (SANEF) and the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC). Entitled ‘A Touchpad to Our Future’, the manual aims to build the capacity of journalists to effectively prepare for, monitor and report on the 2011 municipal elections scheduled for 18 May, while also educating voters on elections and democracy. Click here to download the manual and the press release of the launch. Report: Recidivism and Reoffending in South Africa On 29-30 November 2010, the OSF-SA’s Criminal Justice Initiative hosted a meeting of international experts to discuss “Recidivism and Reoffending in South Africa”. The meeting raised key issues relating to recidivism and delegates unanimously agreed that there is a need for additional research and analysis on these issues. The meeting report provides a detailed account of the presentations and plenary discussion points. Click here for the full report.

The OSF-SA is committed to promoting the values, institutions and practices of an open, non-racial and non-sexist, democratic, civil society. It works for a vigorous and autonomous civil society in which the rule of law and divergent opinions are respected.

The Open Society Foundation for South Africa is a grant-making organisation, and is a member of the International Soros Foundations Network.

OSF-SA Programmes		Featured Publications
General Grants Portfolio Criminal Justice Initiative (CJI) Human Rights and Governance Programme Media Programme		CJI Occasional Paper10: Overview of the Implementation of the Child Justice Act, 2008 (Act 75 of 2008). Good Intentions, questionable outcomes (235KB)   Author: Charmain Badenhorst   Published Date: 2011     CJI Occasional Paper 9: Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Amendment Act (32 of 2007) (227)   Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Amendment Act: Reform, Risks and Revelations Author: Dr Lillian Artz   Published Date: 2010     Open Society Monitoring Index Round 1 (528 KB)   The Open Society Monitoring Index assesses the degree of openness in South African society.   Published Date: 2010     CJI Occasional Paper 8: An Acceptable price to Pay The use of lethal force by police in South Africa (591 KB)   Author: David Bruce   Published Date: 2010     Public Broadcasting in Africa Series: South Africa (1.54 MB)     Published Date: 2010     Contemporary Issues In South Africa Toolkit (182 KB)   Author: Tanya Farber   Published Date: 2009

The Foundation's strategy is to support and engage in activities that focus on the delivery of a needed service. In doing so it has decided it will:

• act in a limited number of priority areas and with projects which will initiate change and produce demonstrable results within two years
• seek major ventures or fresh ideas that would not see the light of day without the resources and assistance of the Foundation
• seek to act in co-ordination and co-operation with other organisations and funding agencies to ensure that resources are optimally used

The Foundation will seek to ensure that in its work all projects should have:

• an ongoing institution-building impact
• an emphasis on sustainability
• a mutually reinforcing impact wherever possible

The Open Society Foundation was founded by George Soros in April 1993 to promote the ideal of an open society in South Africa; an ideal which includes democracy, a market economy, a strong civil society, respect for minorities and tolerance for divergent opinions.

The foundation has been established in the conviction that the collapse of a closed, apartheid society will not lead automatically to the emergence of an open society in South Africa. In its work the foundation will encourage new approaches and ideas which will contribute to the creating of an open society in South Africa.

Founder and Chairman

George Soros was born in Budapest, Hungary on August 12, 1930. He survived the Nazi occupation of Budapest and left communist Hungary in 1947 for England, where he graduated from the London School of Economics (LSE). While a student at LSE, Soros became familiar with the work of the philosopher Karl Popper, who had a profound influence on his thinking and later on his professional and philanthropic activities.

The Financier

In 1956, Soros moved to the United States, where he began to accumulate a large fortune through an international investment fund he founded and managed. Today he is chairman of Soros Fund Management LLC.

The Philanthropist

Soros has been active as a philanthropist since 1979, when he began providing funds to help black students attend the University of Cape Town in apartheid South Africa. Today he is chairman of the Open Society Institute (OSI) and the founder of a network of philanthropic organizations that are active in more than 50 countries. Based primarily in Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union-but also in Africa, Latin America, Asia, and the United States-these foundations are dedicated to building and maintaining the infrastructure and institutions of an open society. They work closely with OSI to develop and implement a range of programs focusing on civil society, education, media, public health, and human rights as well as social, legal, and economic reform. In recent years, OSI and the Soros foundations network have spent more than $400 million annually to support projects in these and other focus areas. In 1992, Soros founded Central European University, with its primary campus in Budapest.

The Author and Philosopher

Soros is the author of eight books:

• The Bubble of America Supremacy: Correcting the Misuse of American Power (PublicAffairs, January 2004)
• George Soros on Globalization (2002)
• The Alchemy of Finance (1987)
• Opening the Soviet System (1990)
• Underwriting Democracy (1991)
• Soros on Soros: Staying Ahead of the Curve (1995)
• The Crisis of Global Capitalism: Open Society Endangered (1998)
• Open Society: Reforming Global Capitalism (2000)

His articles and essays on politics, society, and economics regularly appear in major newspapers and magazines around the world.

George Soros's political activities are wholly separate from the Open Society Institute and the Soros foundations network, including the Open Society Foundation for South Africa.

Read an official OSI statement on this subject.

The numerous non-profit foundations and organisations created and funded by George Soros are linked together in an informal network, the Soros foundations network. At the heart of this network are 24 autonomous national foundations. They are located in Albania, Belarus, Bulgaria, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Georgia, Haiti, Hungary, Kazakstan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, Moldova, Poland, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, Ukraine and Yugoslavia.

The foundations share the common mission of supporting the development of open societies. To this end, they support a range of programmes and initiatives in education, civil society, independent media, Internet and e-mail communications, publishing, human rights and social, legal, and economic reform. The Open Society Institute - New York and the Open Society Institute - Budapest assist these foundations and organisations by creating programmes on issues common to two or more foundations and by providing administrative, financial, and technical support. Other entities created by George Soros include the Central European University, the International Science Foundation, and the Open Media Research Institute.

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