By Scelo Zibagwe (on behalf of CORC)
Enkanini Informal settlement was self-initiated by residents on a municipal land in 2006. Even though they were accommodated after battles with usual demolition responses, the settlement has suffered neglect particularly in service delivery. ‘Enkanini’ literally means ‘force’, which manifested itself through grassroots mobilisation of the urban poor who refused and resisted to be subjects and ‘patients’ of the conventional but exclusionary spatial planning practices by using their bottom-up latent ‘force’ for self-help housing alternatives. After the South African SDI Alliance forged a partnership with the Stellenbosch Municipality in 2011 on the need to respond to the dire needs of residents of Enkanini, the community leaders sought to make themselves visible to the local government authorities. They did this by nominating 60 volunteers from the community to undergo an enumeration training session that was facilitated (on August 8 and 10 2012) by CORC at the Kayamandi Corridor offices. The session was graced by the presence of the municipality’s Integrated Human Settlement Deputy Director, Principal Field Officers, and the Councillor for Ward 12 (which contains Enkanini). The Langrug Informal Settlement representatives were also present to share their experiences, after having engaged with the municipality in the upgrading initiatives in their settlement. The leaders agreed that the settlement be partitioned into 9 sections.
Training of Enkanini enumeration volunteers.
After the training of enumeration volunteers, the leaders went to introduce them to the community during a general meeting (August 12, 2012), a process that enabled easy access to residents’ homes as well enlisting their cooperation with enumerators. An advance team of 4 volunteers began the numbering process on August 13, 2012 and were given a head start of one day after which the enumeration team began enumeration on the following day. The numbering team completed their task on August 22, 2013.
Numbering team at work
At the start and end of each enumeration day, enumeration volunteers meet at their central point for distribution and collation of enumeration questionnaires. Team leaders were summarising the returned questionnaires and ensuring all section s are filled satisfactorily. Another general meeting was convened in the community on August 26, 2012 to give feedback on the community about the just ended shack numbering and the ongoing enumeration. Residents, particularly those who leave for work early morning and come back to their homes in the evening when enumeration volunteers had knocked off were called by their shack numbers after the meeting so that they can avail themselves (with their Identification Documents) for enumeration. Enumeration volunteers were present and ready to go with these residents to their shack so that they can be captured.
Enumeration volunteers at work
When enumeration was going on the SDI/Municipality/Community partnership worked together to secure an office space in which 6 computer-skilled residents will be involved in the data entry or capturing process. The municipality offered one of its board room, 2 desktop computers, 1 laptop (CORC provided the other 2 laptops) and the data capturing process began on August 22, 2012 and is expected to be completed by mid-September 2012. Before data capturing, municipality officials and CORC representative undertake another verification process to make sure all forms are complete and cleared for entry into the excel spreadsheet prepared by CORC to capture all responses in the questionnaire. During this process, the municipality officials and CORC representative overseeing the data capturing process maintain constant communication with team leaders on the enumeration to ensure that any incomplete questionnaires are given back to enumeration to complete any missing data and/or correct any erroneous information, and ensure that these questionnaires are returned back to the data capturing office. The fact that the community is actively involved in all these phases, brings in empowering elements as they participate fully in representing themselves and their demographics. Mapping team from CORC is soon to work with community volunteers in spatially representing their settlements. This are stages to a short and medium term engagements between municipality and Enkanini residents in working together on upgrading initiatives that will improve slum dwellers’ lives.
Team leaders collecting and verifying completed Questionnaires
Data Capturing Volunteers at Work.
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