John GI Clarke
Supporting whistleblowers for justice

John Clarke at home in Johannesburg © Thom Pierce 2023
John Clarke is a social worker who, through a deep-seated obligation to challenge social injustice, turns his work into activism time and time again.
Although he professes to be merely upholding his role as a social worker, his passion for political, economic and environmental justice comes through in the lengths to which he will go to get justice.
Not only is he a passionate advocate for the rights of his clients, but he takes on the broader issues that they have taught him about. He then writes, campaigns and makes films about them; anything that he can do to engage a wider audience and get the stories heard.
It should be noted that he does this whilst simultaneously providing his clients with safe counsel and respecting the strict code of practice that social workers have towards client confidentiality.
His work has led him to work closely with the Amadiba Crisis Committee in their fight to save the community of Xolobeni from an Australian mining company that wanted to develop the land.
More recently, arising from lessons learned from the Amadiba experience, he now works to support whistleblowers in Africa facing harsh retaliation.
“Social workers are not meant to become the story, but it was time to start putting my head above the parapet here… It’s not what social workers should be doing, but the exceptional nature of the country we live in means that we have got to do exceptional things.”
His social conscience developed as a young man when he became a conscientious objector after spending a year as a non-combatant in the South African Defence Force - through this experience he was forced to evaluate his own values and the impact that he wanted to make with his life.
“Our growth and development as human beings is a simultaneous process of self-reflection into your own conscience and an outward journey to consciousness”
Over the years his conscience has led him into some sticky situations with lawsuits and threats from powerful people that he is unafraid to call out. But John keeps on going, speaking truth about a power that really doesn’t want you to hear it.
Read more from John on his website www.icosindaba.co.za or his Medium page here. You can follow John on Twitter, YouTube and Facebook: @icosindaba
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