The Legalbrief Africa interview: Kevin Chaplin

Thirty years after American anti-apartheid activist Amy Biehl was killed in the build-up to South Africa’s historic all-race elections, the foundation created in her name continues to empower township youths. In this Q&A with Legalbrief Africa, foundation CEO Kevin Chaplin says it continues to ride on the wave of goodwill in SA.

The foundation obviously took a hit with the Covid-19 pandemic. How healthy is it now? Whilst our income has not yet returned to pre-Covid-19 levels, we have seen an encouraging improvement since March this year. We were actually able to continue working throughout the lockdown by converting to virtual classes and feeding schemes for our learners and the community. Years before the pandemic, we started a reserve fund for the unexpected, and this is what saved us. We have not been able to replenish it yet but as soon as our income improves enough we will do that. We have a sound financial model with diversified income streams and a strong focus on costs and efficiencies, together with a strong board and committed and dedicated staff, so we are optimistic that things can only get better. 

There is an air of fatigue in South Africa at the moment. State capture, last year’s riots and load shedding have affected the economy and the psyche of the nation. Is the feeling of goodwill that allowed the foundation to flourish in its early years still there? Absolutely. We believe the success of South Africa is going to be non-profits like the Amy Foundation, business and private individuals stepping into the gap where government is failing. The Amy Foundation and Amy Biehl story is a powerful story of Ubuntu, forgiveness, reconciliation and restorative justice but also one of hope, especially when you see the youth that come through our programmes and the impact we have on them. Our Amy Foundation Youth Skills Development Programme has seen us place 1 326 of our students in employment since 2016 and start 143 new businesses since 2019. The youngsters are excelling and these result brings with it a lot of goodwill from the township communities, from corporate and business employers, donors and the wider public.  

Two of the four men convicted for Amy's murder, Easy Nofemela and Ntobeko Peni, are now working for your foundation. It says so much about your cause. Yes, they were only 18 at the time and were so humbled by this act of forgiveness in 1997 that they decided to dedicate their life to teaching the youths and they have been doing so ever since. They are amazing young men that I have had the privilege to work with. They are good husbands and good fathers. Easy has now moved on to his own woodwork business after being with us for 20 years, but we believe in giving staff wings to fly. Ntobeko who grew to become our programme manager is a real leader and is now busy designing the curriculum for two of the five disciplines in our vocational skills training programme that we hope to roll out in 2023, funding dependant.    

At your recent gala dinner, retail giant Raymond Ackerman received a lifetime award. How important has he been to your cause? It was the first inaugural Amy Foundation Ubuntu Award and it was presented to both Raymond and Wendy Ackerman as they have been extremely important to me personally and to the Amy Foundation. They were the first people I turned to for assistance back in 2006 and they have continued to support the programmes financially. Wendy has tirelessly gone into our literacy programmes in the townships to read to our learners. When we built our youth skills centre back in 2014 and 2015 they were instrumental in ensuring we could complete it. We introduced the award to recognise someone who espouses the values of Ubuntu and are an example and inspiration to all South Africans, Africans and the world at large.

With the TRC, South Africa created a blueprint for other nations dealing with self-inflicted trauma. Has the Amy Biehl model been emulated elsewhere or is it unique to South Africa? It was emulated in Northern Ireland. They were having a lot of youth as young as 14 going to jail, being released and re-offending until they introduced South Africa’s TRC model. So, I cannot claim it as the Amy Biehl model, but I have done work with the prisons in Northern Ireland talking about the Amy Biehl story and the foundation as well.