Walk with us for investment justice
Keen to show SA asset managers they should stop financing fossil fuels? Join our 15 November walk through Cape Town showing how investments have shaped our history − and threaten our future.
Worried that South African investment companies are still supporting the fossil-fuel firms wrecking our climate and our collective future? Curious about the past and present of socially responsible investment?
Make your voice heard: join Fossil Free SA’s divestment campaigners and our partner civil society organisations for our first-ever Investment Justice Walk on Friday, 15 November.
The walk will begin at St. George’s Cathedral at 9.30am, and will highlight the urgent need for accelerating ethical investment in South Africa and the current dearth of such investments, especially given the climate breakdown that is bringing worse droughts, floods and other extreme weather events for societies across our country – and world.
We will visit historical and modern landmarks of Cape Town that tell the story of how finance has been used to mould society, for good and ill.
These include Parliament, the Slave Lodge, the District Six Museum and the financial institutions Standard Bank, Allan Gray and Ninety One Asset Managers.
It is ironic that Standard Bank and Ninety One, both located on a foreshore threatened by climate-induced sea-level rise, continue to fund the fossil fuel companies that are breaking our global climate.
Along the way, speakers will address topics including:
The impact of shareholder capitalism pioneered by the Dutch East India Company
How divestment helped end slavery and apartheid
The Parliamentary Pension Fund’s ESG investment strategy
Community members will explain how they are directly affected by the climate events brought about by fossil fuel companies
Corporate accountability: The walk will end at the Victoria & Alfred Waterfront, where we will challenge asset managers to align their investments with Paris Agreement targets for reducing carbon emissions.
Fossil Free South Africa has repeatedly called upon Allan Gray and other asset managers to provide ethical and fossil fuel-free investment options, through direct engagement and our #InvestFossilFree campaign.
If you’ve not already done so, please support this effort by signing a letter here asking your asset manager to provide a fossil-fuel free fund.
We also recently launched our Planet A Investment Guide on ethical and fossil fuel-free investment options for South African institutions and individuals.
Investment Justice Walk details
Date: Friday, 15 November 2024
Time: 09h30 – 13h30
Starting point: Outside St. George's Cathedral, 5 Wale Street, Cape Town City Centre (park off-street in Mandela Rhodes Place, entrance at 83 Burg St).
End point: Outside Allan Gray, 1 Silo Square, Victoria & Alfred Waterfront
We encourage attendees to bring water, sunscreen, comfortable walking shoes, a warm top and a hat.
We will provide refreshments along the route, and transport back to St Georges Cathedral will be offered at the end of the event.
Interested? Sign up now to be part of this event highlighting ethical investment for climate justice! We look forward to walking with you.
For more information, please contact sandrine@fossilfreesa.org.za.