"On at least two recent occasions President Thabo Mbeki is reported to have questioned whether NGOs in South Africa are being manipulated by foreign donors and the extent to which civil society in South Africa is independent. As a network of NGOs committed to democracy and free speech we feel compelled to respond to the President’s attack on the credentials of NGOs. The President’s statements over the past week were made in the context of the upcoming African Union peer review of South Africa and civil society’s push for greater representation on the panel that will review the state of governance in the country. The views expressed by Mbeki reiterate government’s ambivalent line on NGOs, particularly on matters related to contested development strategy and NGOs’ oversight role."