News

By Sizwe Mxobo* (on behalf of CORC)

This is a map of the floodlines in Mfuleni, Cape Town. The Green, Blue, Yellow and Red lines indicate the possibilities of this area being flooded in 10, 20, 30 and/or a 100 years respectively. 1/3 of Burundi settlement lies below all four these areas, indicating a high risk area for flooding and disaster. Some of these areas have been evacuated, and affected families were relocated to the close by Temporary Relocation Area (TRA) called Busasa. Like many other informal settlement in Cape Town’s low lying areas, called the Cape Flats, Burundi has many service delivery problems. The settlement is situated in flood zone and thus far the City has refused to regularise and upgrade the area. Hence, there are no legal electricity poles. Only those closer to the formal houses have electricity through illegal connections and paying premiums for the service.

In 2011, when the community of Burundi first made contact with the Informal Settlement Network (ISN), an enumeration was conducted, which was followed by a mapping exercise. The community wanted to find solutions to their settlement-wide issues, such as flooding, low service levels, insecure tenure and lack of infrastructure development and ground work. The community struck the ISN as being self-organised with a willingness to engage with government. The enumeration and mapping exercise really strengthened the community’s plight, and it was presented that more than 3/4 of the settlement was located in what the City of Cape Town deemed as “land unsuitable for development”.

When the MoU with the City of Cape Town was signed in 2012, Burundi was one of the 22 projects in partnership with the City, where an in-principle commitment was made to roll out electricity services. This could then also have been seen as a step towards tenure regularisation, and an application for Upgrading of Informal Settlements Programme (UISP) was a viable option. Despite these potential forward looking alignments, there were considerable hesitation on the part of the City to move on the community’s plans, citing ten reason why this wouldn’t work for every new recommendation. Yes, the area is flooded, but a careful analysis of the site reveals large areas that can be upgraded. This was incorporated into the community’s plans they presented to the city.

 

The sketches above shows the elaborate work done by the community to point to all the major points of interest in the settlement. The second drawing shows that only certain parts of the area under the red “floodline” is prone to flood. With this level of spatial information, the community continued to engage the City in a number of “partnership meetings” with the City. After this broke down, the community decided to protest, and in the process one of the housing offices in Mfuleni was vandalised. This unfortunate event however did draw the attention of the senior decision makers in the City, who organised a community meeting three days after the protest. At this meeting, the City agreed to test the viability of installing electricity in areas under the floodline identified by the community.

 

Last week the community started digging test holes to review the viability of erecting electricity poles and infrastructure. This was done under supervision of City engineers and field officers  The roll out of the electrification of Burundi will be scheduled for a future date. We will continue to update the blog to track the story.

* Proof read and edited by Walter Fieuw

By Tuliza Sindi (on behalf of CORC)

In November, ISN with support from CORC launched a renewed focus on small scale projects funded by the Community Upgrading Finance Facility (CUFF), an Alliance initiative currently housed in uTshani Fund. Marathon and Delport informal settlements were established in 1995 by mineworkers who got evicted from the surrounding mine hostels as a result of the mines closing down. Both these settlements have been grossly neglected in service delivery, and three taps services more than 1,000 people in each of the settlements. here follows an account by an intern architect, Tuliza Sindi, who worked with the community in installing new taps, and upgrading existing ones. Read the account of week one here. 

Tuesday, 04 December 2012 – Marathon Build Day 10; Delport Build Day 5

Marathon:

Sipho continues to support the community around conflict resolution emerging from last week’s project initiation. Majola and I drive around the settlement to count the amount of installed and working taps. Ten taps have been installed in the last week, double of what was proposed. However, these were installed without slabs, which complicates the consolidation of wash-up areas around the taps. This is not an unworkable situation.

Some of the newly installed and working taps. The sign in the middle image can be seen above one of the new taps. It reads: “Asifuni-muntu owashala nezingane khana amanzi uwashele khaya” meaning that no-one is allowed to let the water run freely, eroding the gravel around the tap. The community should collect water at the tap and take it home. 

Two of the taps have a low water pressure, caused due to a leaking pipe connection. The tap seemed to have this leak since Saturday and was not fixed over the weekend. 

Delport:

We find 3 washstands built and some pipes placed in the ground. Some dig the trenches while others proceed to build the fourth washstand. The construction team is working well together, and is showing high levels of efficiency.

Wednesday, 05 December 2012 – Marathon Build Day 11; Delport Build Day 6

Marathon:

Sipho, the leadership from Ramaphosa and ISN coordinator, is still mediating the leadership struggle in Marathon. The project is running in serious delays but new leaders are emerging that are willing to by-pass individualistic interests.

Delport:

As we arrive in Delport, Blanco explains how there is no truck available to bring the heavy loads to the far away taps. This has slowed down the building of slabs significantly. The company bakkie is used to carry sand, cement, water and aggregate to the far taps. They are now able to complete two of the slabs that day.

 Blanco loads some sand onto the company bakkie.

The bricks are loaded off the bakkie.

Friday, 06 December 2012 – Marathon Build Day 13; Delport Build Day 8

Marathon:

Even with all the leadership tussles, the community has gone ahead with installing and finishing their second slab and preparing for the third. The community’s unity around project implementation is impressive.

 The second washstand almost complete.

 Delport:

As the supplies arrive, the community construction team plans to finish the slabs in the late afternoon to then commence with some trench digging for the pipes. Due to the excessive distances they expect to finish laying all of the pipes on Sunday. Some pipe connectors need to be changed, due to better paths found and directions changed. Due to this, the project is expected to finish on Tuesday.

Collecting aggregate for the final washstand.

By Andy Bolnick (on behalf of iKhayalami and CORC)

Before

On the 1^st January 2013, Tuesday in the early hours of the morning a man in the furthest eastern part of BM Section informal settlement in Khayelitsha fell asleep while he was cooking food on a hotplate stove. A fire started at 4am. With gale-force winds blowing the fire quickly swept out of control. With the strong southeaster and being hampered by lack of access the middle of the settlement the fire department failed to contain the blaze, finally ‘putting out’ the fire at 10.30am when it had virtually run its course – blazing a trail of destruction right through the settlement leaving approximately 5000 people homeless, 1 000 shacks guttered, 3 confirmed deaths and one person in a critical condition. On January the 2^nd of January a fourth body was found in the debris and on the 4^th of January the man who had 80% burns passed away in hospital.

After

 On the 2^nd of January, Wednesday Phumezo Sibanda, an ISN leader from Khayelitsha, called Andy Bolnick from Ikhayalami to talk to her about the disaster and start thinking through what kind of support could offered. It was agreed that Phumezo would go to site to assess things and meet with the BM leaders.

 

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 Shortly after Phumezo’s call one of Ikhayalami’s main funder for disaster relief/re-blocking efforts (for the past 6 years), Mr. Gerald Fox from the Percy Fox Foundation, called. He had heard about the devastating fire and offered immediate resources so that Ikhayalmi could respond with a sizeable number of shelters in order to potentially attract more resources to a response effort and to do a re- blocking.

In the meantime Phumezo who rallied support from two other ISN leaders in the Khayeltisha area – Thozama and Nombini Mafikhana – attended the tail end of a Disaster Management meeting at the OR Tambo hall, which has since become the nerve center of relief efforts.  Following the meeting they engaged with some of the BM leadership.

Phumezo then asked Bolnick to come to site to meet with some of the leadership who informed us that they ‘want the city to level the area and open up roads’. They said that this is what they discussed in the meeting with the city that morning.

Bolnick enquired about whether the leadership had a list of all the residents of BM. The leadership said that there is a list that the city has. Bolnick suggested that they get hold of this list, verify it and if need be start compiling their own list. Phumezo and Bolnick also spoke about the potential of spatial reconfiguration in addition to merely demarcating roads. Mention was made to the potential of the availability of between 150 – 200 shelters from Ikhayalami (20 immediately and the remainder after the 15^th) to assist with a spatial reconfiguration/re-blocking if the community decided to go this route. There was also some discussion about the potential of arranging an exchange visit to Sheffield rd and Mthisni Wam for BM leaders.

While on site the leaders were informed that a fourth body had been found in the debris. We left the leaders to attend to the pressing issues at hand.

The site is so vast – standing in the middle of the site – on the one side people were still collecting rubble and clearing the site, on the other side the site was almost cleared.  

3^rd of January, Thursday community leaders and NGO support staff attended a joint meeting of stakeholders. Those present were members of a crisis committee that was formed the day before comprising of a few leaders from BM section, delegates from the city (Disaster Management dept), Social Dev Services, SASSA, Home Affairs, Law Enforcement, KDF, SANCO, VPUU, Amaxesibe Traditional Council, an ANC delegation, a church group and other people from the community and our delegation. Important points were raised but no one was listening to each other. As soon as an important point was made another person would talk about something inconsequential or petty and the vital point would be lost. There was also information that a separate disaster response committee comprising of provincial government members was meeting separately in Belville. This created further frustration. Party political issues were being raised that included laying blame and arguing. The BM leadership were getting angry and wanted action.

Issues that were raised pertained to insufficient food, the need for more mattresses, frustration that the city had not started leveling. The city called for all the debris to be removed by the community, talk also revolved around how to take care of people’s debris who were still in the Eastern Cape on holiday – where could it be stored and how the city would take care of the debris so that when construction began people could get their burnt material back to use for reconstruction. It was agreed that all the debris would be removed from site by 2pm the following day. There was also an urgent plea to get the ‘list’ verified. This task was given to the Principle Field Officer (PFO) and VPUU.

Bolnick suggested that it would be imperative that the BM leadership be involved in this process. On behalf of the SDI alliance delegation attending the meeting she offered support to the city and VPUU to work with the leadership on getting the list of victims sorted. This being a key SDI tool it was felt that it could act as an entry point for ISN to start mobilizing the community and give them the power with regards to information (the list) and start building a working relationship with VPUU.

Bolnick also mentioned that should the BM leadership and the people of BM (as well as the city) agree to do a blocking out Ikhayalami had raised funds for the provision of 200 shelters and would support this process together with our alliance partners.

With regard to the ISN supporting the City, VPUU and the leadership in compiling a verified list the first time Bolnick mentioned this, the point was lost. The second time she managed to get the offer accepted by City’s the Principle Field Officer.

After the meeting the ISN members as well as NGO support staff met with four of the BM leadership to discuss a way forward. It was agreed that at 4pm that afternoon an exchange would go from BM section to Sheffield Rd and Mshini Wam. Vuyani and Nkokeli felt that ISN should not be involved with supporting the leaders, VPUU and the city in sorting out the list of victims. Their rationale was that the leadership knows their own communities. Corc staff felt that they could not support the BM leadership if ISN had decided not to assist with the compilation of a verified list. At 2pm we all left the OR Tambo Hall.

Vuyani and Nkokeli went to Du Noon to offer support and assess the situation following a fire that occurred there on the 31^st of December where 125 shacks had burnt down. A meeting was arranged for the following morning at the Corc offices for ISN and staff to regroup especially if we needed to make a decision concerning supporting Du Noon and or BM section.

At 4pm Melvyn from Ikhayalami and arrived at the OR Tambo Hall to fetch members of the BM community who had been elected to visit Sheffield Rd and Mshini Wam. The exchange was positive. The leaders from BM who attended the exchange were able to get a better grasp of what was meant by blocking-out.

4^th of January, Friday – the regroup meeting scheduled for 8.30am was called off. Nkokeli reported that people in Du Noon had already rebuilt their shacks and that ‘we should focus our attention on BM’. It was agreed to meet at OR Tambo Hall to attend the crisis committee meeting. The Mayor of Cape Town, Patricia De Lille, Councilor Sonnenberg, E.D Mr. Seth Maqetuka and Head of Informal Settlements Department Mr. Zwandile Sokupa as well as other officials from the various departments’ attended this meeting.

The Mayor would hear non-of-this and became angry that people were meddling in politics while there was a crisis at hand. She also confirmed all the support that the city had provided up to that stage. Fortuitously Naledi Pandor the Minister of Home Affairs walked into the meeting. She too said that it was not a time for politics and that the focus should be on aiding the people and moving forward. Minister Pandor made a number of practical recommendations with regard to processing ID’s and the immediate provision of portable toilets.

A site-specific report was given. Mr. Maqetuka reported that ‘the City is working on a short-term plan and is also developing a short to medium term plan’.  The Mayor asked that the meeting focus on the immediate disaster response. The city engineer reported that ‘there was an agreement for Solid Waste to clear the material and that they were on site and machinery will come on site this afternoon to do leveling’.

Councilor Sonnenberg stressed the importance of a verified beneficiary list. Mr. Sokupa and Mr. Maqetuka acknowledged Ikhayalmi’s offer to support the process with the provision of 200 shelters should there be a need for a re-blocking.

The Mayor agreed to be part of the crisis committee and said that all her engagements will be done through the Ward Councilor in line with protocol.

After the meeting Mr. Maqetuka and Mr. Soup met with the SA SDI Alliance delegates briefly. Bolnick requested access to the site layout for fire-breaks/roads. They informed us that the City was not yet sure in which direction the relief effort would go as they were in consultation with the Province and there was a likelihood that they would embark on a UISP project, so as of yet there were no concrete plans. They asked us to be a patient and said they would draw us in when needed. Thereafter most of the officials and political leaders went on a site visit. The alliance delegates stayed in the vicinity of the hall and managed to meet a city engineer who said that there was layout for the roads but that he did not have it with him.

On 5^th of January, Saturday Phumezo, Thozama, Nombini and Bolnick went to the OR Tambo Hall to meet with the engineer and attend the crisis committee meeting. Disaster Management chaired the crisis committee meeting. The Mayor and officials who had been in the meeting the previous day were not present. Disaster management reported on progress with regards to the delivery of more mattresses, medi-packs and nappies. The responsibility of distribution had been given to the BM leadership. The confirmed number of people registered and staying in the OR Tambo hall was 1660 made up of almost an equal number of males, females and children and 55 babies. The confirmed list of fatalities were given – 3 deaths reported on the 1^st, one found on the 2^nd of January in the rubble and the fifth person who passed away in hospital from 80% burns on the 4^th of January.

It was also confirmed that disaster management and social services would remain on site until further notice. Discussion arose around WB Section where there had also been a fire on either the 31^st Dec affecting 54 households. People complained that WB Section was not getting the same kind of support that BM was getting. It was reported that people in WB had already received the city’s starter packs and that most people had rebuilt their homes. The crisis committee agreed to find ways of supporting victims in WB section.

With regard to work on the site it was reported that two front loaders and one digger loader where on site clearing and leveling the land and that a land surveyor was on site assessing where the firebreaks should go. Another plea, this time from SASSA was made for the urgent need for a verified beneficiary list. The meeting was then adjourned.

Phumezo, Nombini and Bolnick decided to go to site with two BM leaders. En route they checked the measurement of an existing road to get a sense of scale in anticipation of finding out the width that the city was planning to use.

The main reason why they decided to go to site (apart from viewing the leveling) was to find a land surveyor, engineer or even a truck driver, in fact anyone who could give them some information about the proposed fire breaks as these would be key starting points in thinking through a new layout and at the very least to consider if the proposed roads make sense to the community.

While on site they found a city official who was able to disclose the type of information they had been seeking. Firstly he told them that the width of the roads would be 5m. Secondly the City is planning on putting in two roads through the settlement and one ring road around the area that was burnt (there was previously a road at the bottom of the settlement) and thirdly the city was going to arrange for a plane to fly overhead and take high-resolution aerial photographs. From these photographs the proposed roads would be confirmed.  As things progress it is clear that these images will be vital for planning purposes and are images that the alliance should try to access as soon as possible.

After this engagement the group walked to the middle of the site to assess things and think things through from a spatial perspective.

Looking at the site it did not make sense to put a ring road around the burnt area (the sides and bottom were virtually from one section of the settlement to the other so this could make sense but the top section still has shacks that did not burn and is about 17m to the main road). The width of the burnt out area looked around 35m wide with a length of approximately 100m. The top part of the ring road was the road that did not make sense as in essence if they are to go ahead with this it would mean that 500sqm would be taken up (over and above the other justifiable roads) for purpose of a road as apposed to land for those affected. It would make more sense to extend the two roads in the middle of the settlement to meet Landsdowne Rd. From the edge of where shacks still remained to Landsdown rd it is approximately 17m. This would mean that 17m x 5m x 2 roads = 170sqm would be used for roads as apposed to 500sqm. It is reasons like these that it is important that community leaders get drawn into the design processes so that they can make recommendations that make sense and work better for the broader community.

On the 6^th of January, Sunday at 9.30am Mr. Sokupa phoned Bolnick to confirm the number of shelters that Ikhayalami could provide, how soon and how many per day. Bolnick confirmed that should a plan be reached and all parties including the BM leadership and ISN agree then Ikhayalami could make 20 shelters available immediately and from the 17^th of January when factories re-opened could supply 20 per day.

Thozama, Nombini and Phumezo went to the OR Tambo Hall to attend the crisis committee meeting where the Mayor was scheduled to attend. The Mayor and the Premier arrived at the confirmed time, that being 2pm. They insisted that the crisis committee and other people in the boardroom vacate so that they could hold a meeting with the Ward Councilor. People who were in the boardroom (where meetings had been held every day since the disaster) were outraged. After some commotion two separate meetings took place –one with the Premier, Mayor and Ward Councilor and one with the crisis committee. The Ward Councilor came to the crisis committee meeting and said that he would represent the crisis committee in the meeting with the Mayor and Premier. At times he came out of the meeting to consult with members of the crisis committee.

The Premier and Mayor stated that only 250 families will return to the site, the rest will be relocated to the area next to the OR Tambo hall and others next to Busasa on SANDF land. The BM leadership informed the Ward Councilor that the Premier should not put a set number to how many households will return to the site ‘as the community intends to work on their own layout that would accommodate many more than the 250 households.

On Monday the 7^th of January it was time for the SA SDI alliance to regroup. A meeting was convened to reflect and strategise going forward. Vuyani, Nkokeli, Bunita, Olwetu, Zipho and Andy formed part of this meeting. A report on the past 5 days was given comprising the above.

In the reflection meeting it was agreed that the situation in BM is a complex and that the community is ‘about to go to a big war without any tools’ (Vuayni). As such it is imperative that the ISN work with the BM leaders with whom there is now a connection and go deeper so as to reach the street committee leadership and the community at large. The idea is that three Khayelitsha ISN leaders who have been involved in meetings on site since the 2^nd of January will work with Vuyani and Nkokeli to develop a strategy on how to deepen ISN’s presence within the broader community. It is also vital that FEDUP get drawn in into this process so that woman can start supporting one another in this difficult time.

It also became clear that Vuyani and Nkokeli’s reluctance to get involved had to do with fact that they are not from the Khayelitsha are, that they view the situation in BM as highly political and that previously in 2010 as leaders of the ISN they did not succeed (through no fault of theirs) in doing what the BM leadership had asked of them and were worried this would come back to haunt them. It was agreed that in spite of all the difficulties and complexities it is vital that the ISN support the BM community in their time of need.

On Tuesday the 8^th of January Phumezo, Nkokeli, Thozama, Vuyani and Nombini met at the OR Tambo hall. They agreed that they should call a meeting with the BM leadership that includes the street committees. Unfortunately this meeting did not materialize and ISN are planning to do it as soon as possible. That evening a leader from BM called Phumezo and Bolnick saying that the crisis committee (of which Ikhayalami had previously been invited to participate by the broader committee) would be meeting with the Mayor on the 9^th of January.

Wednesday morning the 9^th of January at 9am Ikhayalami’s support at the meeting at the Civic Centre was confirmed by the BM leadership.

In the coming days things will unfold and we will constantly assess what type of support we can offer. Politics is firing and misfiring everywhere from petty politics to political mud slinging to high level politics. The petty politics and mud slinging politics are bedfellows. Every community forum/organisation in Khayelitsha has been jostling to be ‘powerful’. Disaster Management and other government relief effort departments are trying to complete their tasks and get the hell out of there. The high level politics are invisible to most, taking place behind closed doors and off site.

In an attempt to offer support and respond to the disaster Ikhayalami’s involvement has been to 1)to support the BM leaders/community to see through and make sense of the murky waters so as to be in a better position to plot an equitable as possible way forward, to assist them in starting to  think one step ahead and to open doors for the ISN and FEDUP.

The alliances role going forward should include the following agenda – to support the BM leadership to negotiate with the state, to act as a bridge between community and the state, to support our city partners in this huge task in a way gives voice to the BM community, to gain access to the plans and aerial images and draw the community into the planning and t set up women savings groups.

 

 

 

By Walter Fieuw (on behalf of SWN/ISN)

Solid waste management requires citizens, industries and government to work in a collaborative manner to minimise the flow of waste to landfill sites. The City of Cape Town estimates the following breakdown of waste generation: households 46%, industry 27% and commerce 26%. Research conducted on the capacity of landfill sites as the primary waste disposal option has found that, “based on the latest assessments, the remaining lifespan of the City’s landfills, when no additional diversions from landfill are implemented over and above current diversions and excluding private landfills, is between 12-14 years counting from 2010 onwards”. Despite the environmental and community health implications of mushrooming landfill sites, this manner of waste disposal is still the preferred method.

Most municipalities in South Africa has by-laws in place and there is a growing recognition that waste has economic value – recycling and reuse creates economic activity and minimises health, socio-economic and resource impacts, thereby reducing the amount of waste that ends up in expensive landfills. Major industries have waste processing plants, and the economic value of these industries is considerable.

However, the majority of municipal interventions in Cape Town, and for that matter other metropolitan municipalities too, has done little to improve the access for informal waste pickers to markets. Despite the emphasis on finding new solutions to waste management, especially recognising the livelihood aspect of informal waste pickers, little institutional and organisational capacity has been developed to take informal waste management to scale. Research and experience has suggested that it can be highly counterproductive to establish new formal waste management and recycling systems without recognising the role of the informal sector. There is very little organisational support to encourage job creation and livelihood opportunities in solid waste management and recycling, and poor people often do not benefit from this core municipal function.

A Skip with crushed recycled glass in Sheffield Road, a settlement linked to ISN

The Solid Waste Network (SWN) was initiated in 2005 in response to the growing demand of organised communities for livelihood opportunities. After learning about informal communities organising around solid waste in Nairobi, Kenya and Cairo, Egypt via Shack / Slum Dwellers International (SDI) exchanges, groups in Cape Town started organising and collecting first batches of glass, plastic and paper, and created direct links with the formal recycling industry.

The project has 2 components: 1.) the SWN as a community-based network of communities of informal waste pickers, and 2.) the support system comprising of the collection and management team with a staff complement of five. The SWN promotes as socio-institutional approach to integrating informal waste pickers in the formal recycling industry. By creating organisational capacity to advance pro-poor and inclusive measures to integrating the poor, the SWN enables market mechanisms to work for the poor.

[vimeo width=”620″ height=”483″]http://vimeo.com/36049161[/vimeo]

The SWN has developed a socio-institutional approach to waste management, by merging access to markets with real time livelihoods support. Groups of waste pickers source waste at community level for income, adding to cleaner neighbourhoods, as well as environmental education. The collection team responds to the demands of the network, i.e. when someone is in need of cash, they make amendments to their collection plan. The SWN meets monthly as a learning platform on recycling industry and policy developments, as well as operational aspects to develop the income component. A community waste collection point is in convenient proximity for waste pickers, and acts as a learning process to replicate such buy-in model (large collectives of individual pickers) in other parts of the city. In Cape Town, the SWN has developed a working relationship with a number of industries: Paper (Nampak and Mondi); Plastic (Extrupek, New Heights and Proplus) and glass (SAB, Distell, Mega Metals, Consol and Macro). The SWN is recognized as a stakeholder in the industry, with lots of potential for expansion. The SWN, as an ISN initiative, is seeking to expand this model to communities in Joburg, Ekurhuleni, Durban, Port Elizabeth and the West Coast. Resource constraints are currently hampering this.

On 8 November, leaders of some of the larger buy-in centres in Cape Town gathered to assess the progress of goals in 2012, and to chart the ambitions for 2013. The Solid Waste Network (SWN) continually needs to assess the scale of current activities and operations due to the unique service the administrative hub provides, which is costly and receives very little external support. The administrative hub’s 5 members, repairs to the vehicles and other administrative costs are covered by the proceeds from the waste sold to the industries (CORC subsidises a large part of the fuel of the collection vehicles).

Marlene Busa, a single mother from Mitchell’s Plein, said that is was not easy for her to collect waste at the beginning. “Some people look down on you,” said Marlene, adding that “government should recognize us—us people who are cleaning our environment—because it is not a bad thing; it is a way of living. It is an income, and a service to the community”. However, despite the service to the communities and to the City, some of the communities have experienced the disempowering effect of by-law implementation when their informal buy-in centres were shut down and/or fined (up to R20,000) by Metro Police because they did not have the relevant enterprise registration papers. Such unresponsive regulations hamper the initiatives of the poor.

Reflecting on the progress made since 2006, Gershwin Kohler, an independent consultant to CORC and Solid Waste Network, remarked,

In 2006, we started have a half ton per month of glass, and that was collected in Section B, Khayalitsha. This year, we have set our sights on 50 tonnes of waste glass per month. I am happy to report that the Network has collected 54 tonnes this month. The point SWN wants to bring across is that you have to start small, and grow from there.

In 2013, the SWN aims for the following ambitious targets per month:

• 50 tonnes of glass waste (agreement with Consol)
• 5 tonnes of paper (agreement with Mondi)
• 3 tonnes of tins
• 2 tonnes of plastic
• 50 crates and 100 crates returnable bottles (agreements with SAB and Distell respectively)

The successes of Ms. Agnes Qhagana and her daughter Sheila (pictured above) were signalled out at the meeting. Sheila explained what they have accomplished in the past few years, being one of the first waste pickers to set up a buy-in centre in Khayalitsha.

We started small in Interpark and worked most weekends, my mother and I. But now we have employed two guys to help us over the weekends. Fridays and Saturdays and the holiday months are especially good times to collect the waste. From the waste recycling we have also started a car washing business. We now employ eleven guys to wash cars and we are proud to have the biggest car wash in Spine Road, Khayalitsha. We have upgraded our yard and are looking to extend our house now. The other money we are investing.

Mr. Kholer remarked that the “issue about recycling in tonnage. You must have volume”. John McKerry, the programme manager of the SWN, also reflected favourably on the past year. “What you put in is what you get out. Our service is like a lifeline to many households in desperate need of cash. The SWN is actually like a transport service that connects all the buy-in centres (the pickers’ collectives) and collects the waste at your house and create the income stream. If we work alone, transport will always be a problem. How will you get your stuff to the market if you work alone?”.

John shared a story of a man who was impatient with that the transport team could not collect the waste in a given day. He had 630kg of glass and decided to rent a bakkie (pick-up truck) and deliver the glass himself to a recycling plant in Parow. Parow would pay him 40c/kg (transport not included) where the SWN pays 30c/kg (transport included). At the plant he received R252 for 630kg, but then had to pay the bakkie owner R250 for rental and fuel. He was left with nothing. The SWN would have paid him R190 at his house.

Informal pickers in Cape Town face hardships in collecting and managing waste as an income stream. But strength lies in the collective, and now the SWN can start engaging the City of Cape Town proving that collectively they remove 50 tonnes per month out of the waste stream. In so doing, the collective waste pickers are not only ensuring clear and safer living environments, but also contributing a vital service to the City of Cape Town, and saving public expenditure through minimising airspace cost (current municipal cost of landfilling is R327/tonnes). These costs must be compared to the opportunity costs of finding alternative waste management solutions, which should fundamentally include the role of informal sector workers.

Prize winners for most tonnage generated in 2012.

Left to right: Vivian Retsha, Marlene Busa, Fufukile Tena, Elizabeth Mabayi, Agnes Qhagana, Shiela Qhagana

By Kwanele Sibanda and Walter Fieuw (on behalf of CORC)

Midvaal municipality is located in the Gauteng province and its name is deduced from its geographical location: Midvaal lies halfway between Johannesburg / East Rand and Vaal / Vereeniging areas. Together with Emfuleni and Lesedi municipalities, Midvaal is part of the Sedibeng district municipality. Midvaal is located near the Vaal Dam in a beautiful countryside and has been spotlighted for its tourism potential as it boasts eco-tourism and avi-tourism opportunities.

According to Midvaal’s 2^nd news bulletin of 2012, the 2012/2013 IDP and Budget is focussed on maintaining and enhancing basic service delivery to all areas in Midvaal with a shift towards addressing the need for additional infrastructure and social facilities in poorer communities. Midvaal has undergone a radical change from quaint country area to booming tourist, recreational and industrial centre in Southern Gauteng. According to Statistics South Africa, Midvaal has grown from 60 000 residents in 2001 to 100 000 in 2007. A report by Gauteng’s Provincial Government ranked Midvaal as the province’s top municipality in terms of quality of life. In the 2011 Municipal Productivity Index, conducted by Municipal IQ, Midvaal was ranked 5^th out of 266 municipalities.

However, despite the reforms in municipal governance spurred by the growth of local and regional economies, the life for the majority of informal settlement dwellers have not improved. The uneven development in Midvaal is perhaps most noticable in the level of services in the informal settlements. Sicelo Shiceka is an informal settlement in located 5km outside the town centre of Meyerton. There are sections that are densely populated, and other areas have easily accessible with walkable pathways and access roads. The municipality claims some areas of the land is dolomatic, a soil typology that has plagued development in many areas in Gauteng. The municipality aims to build about 450 houses in the near future, but this will never cater for more than 4,500 households living in Sicelo Shiceka. The settlement is also subjected to fierce political contestation between the Democratic Alliance and the African National Congress. On a recent walkabout in the informal settlement,  MEC for Local Government and Housing Humphrey Mmemezi commented on the situation,

I realized after the walk  about in the area that there are no toilets and people use nearby bushes and open pit toilets to relieve themselves. I made  a commitment that we will get funds  so that  we can buy toilets for the community. There are also only 9 taps for the community of 4000 shacks.

Even though the “department was able to secure R5,7million to provide 1000 toilets and these are going to be cleaned twice a week”, this was done with very little input from the community. The municipality appointed the private security company Red Ants to conduct settlement profiles and socio-economic enumerations in the informal settlements of Midvaal, which is a 3 year agreement. ISN made a number of presentations to the Head of Department: Housing and showcased the detailed eight page enumeration template which includes socio-economic and demographic questions. This information is often of paramount importance to the community’s needs. External service providers such as the Red Ants, who only have a one-page questionnaire asking the most basic questions, do not facilitate these questions. ISN and CORC also produce ID cards as a result of the enumeration exercise, which give the households protection against evictions and displacements.

In the month of October 2012 ISN and CORC supported Sicelo Shiceka settlement more intensely.  A number of engagements with the municipality and the community was facilitated and it was agreed that ISN will be allowed to conduct a autonomous and independent enumeration in Sicelo. The main objective of the enumeration is empowering the majority of shack dwellers that will not be accommodated by the 450 housing units to have a development plan with which to engage the municipality with. An arrangement was struck between CORC and the Midvaal municipality in which the municipality, through the subcontractor Red Ants, will remunerate some of the enumeration expenses. The enumeration comes as an opportunity for community organization, strengthening of leadership and saving schemes as well as paving way for future working relations between the ISN and the municipality in other settlements.

The enumeration of Sicelo Shiceka started yesterday, 31^st of October. More experienced enumerators from other communities linked to ISN in Gauteng will support the community of Sicelo Shiceka. This is the first initiative in the Sedibeng district municipality, and ISN is making in-roads in showcasing, through the enumeration and subsequent planning processes, that people-centred processes are much more effective and efficient than external contractor driven interventions. Only once the community owns the data, and plans situational responsive solutions to better service provision, livelihoods creation, and secure tenure, true empowerment occurs.

By Jhono Bennett and Walter Fieuw (on behalf of CORC)

Post-apartheid urban and housing policies have underscored the necessity of progressively integrating the poor as a means of restructuring spatially fragmented cities and eradicating asset-based poverty. Post–apartheid urban policies had to redress apartheid fragmentation and segregation and the subject of transformation in democratic South Africa has been the historically constructed uneven development of ‘islands of spatial affluence’ in a ‘sea of geographic misery’.

An artist’s impression of the devastation of informal spaces under apartheid planning

With the relaxing of influx controls during the late 1980s, South African cities have been subject to rapid urbanization and resultant growth of informal settlements in inner-city and peripheral areas. The growth of informal settlements in the past two decades have by far exceeded government’s efforts to deliver better services, provide adequate housing and mitigate against disasters and vulnerability. Despite the government’s efforts to deliver more than 2.5 million housing units since 1994, the housing backlog have remained at 15-17% of the urban population (2.1 million units outstanding). Today there are more than 2,600 informal settlements, and continue to grow between 5-7% across different regions. This is a stark increase from 300 informal settlements in 1994. Urban vulnerability has increased, juxtaposed with worsening human development indices, service delivery constraints, insecure tenure, and safety and security concerns.

Since 2004, with the introduction of Breaking New Ground, and through consecutive National Housing Codes (2004, 2007, 2009), the Department of Human Settlements have introduced the concept of “upgrading informal settlements”, which aims to progressively integrate informal settlement into the broader urban fabric, deliver better services, and incrementally secure tenure. To this effect, a performance agreement was signed between the Presidency and National Minister of Human Settlements, Mr. Tokyo Sexwale. Output 1 of the Presidency’s Outcome 8^[1] (Sustainable Human Settlements and improved quality of household life) aims to upgrade 400,000 households in-situ by 2014. Moreover, such interventions are also spotlighted by Chapter 8 of the National Development Plan (also called “Vision 2030”) which calls for the integration of informal settlement into the urban fabric through upgrading, incremental security of tenure, and better service delivery.

Community organisations of the poor have been systematically sidelined through the governments supply-sided approach to urban restructuring and housing delivery. The rally call of social movements in South Africa has been that of greater inclusion in decision making processes and meaningful engagement around settlement improvement. The Informal Settlement Network (ISN) has emerged as an alternative social movement that prioritises pragmatic engagement with government around collaborative approaches to upgrading of informal settlements. However, in Gauteng, communities have been systematically disregarded, which lead to the mobilization of thousands of informal settlement dwellers to march on the office of the premier.

In the wake of the Asihambe solidarity march on the 11^th September, and in response to the growing demand from communities to start small scale and autonomous improvement projects, the Johannesburg CORC office has begun a renewed effort through the CUFF project process of engaging and supporting the informal settlement communities in Gauteng around a range of projects.

The Community Upgrading Finance Facility (CUFF) is an initiative of the South African Alliance. The fund is capitalized by CORC, uTshani Fund and contributions from SDI. The Fund’s board—made up of 60% shack dwellers and 40% support NGO professionals—receives proposals for upgrading projects, but the community is ultimately responsible for writing up the project description, get quotes from suppliers, and implement the project (with support from ISN, CORC and uTshani Fund).

The CUFF projects are one of several tools CORC uses to support the ISN/FEDUP in mobilising organised communities towards development. The CUFF projects work synergistically with the Savings, Enumeration, and Community based planning methodologies alongside partnership formalisation with local government, and call for the identification of a key developmental item needed by a community. The leadership and community members  then work with ISN/FEDUP and CORC technical members to design, quantify and cost the project. In order to proceed, the community members are required to collect and save a fraction of the project cost towards the contribution of the overall costs that, once approved by the CUFF community/NGO board, will be implemented in the community. The objectives of the CUFF projects are to set precedents for Govenment and Community partnerships in informal settlement upgrading by providing technical assistance and seed capital for pilot projects. This process should ideally create systems, procedures and structures that enable communities to work in collaboration with government institutions.

In order to meet these growing demands, the Johannesburg CORC office has employed the help of several new interns from the 1:1 Student League Network, having gained experience in this network through the University design/build projects, they are open minded and ready to engage with the difficulties involved in the socio-technical support of community driven development processes. These interns are working under the supervision and guidance of the ISN/FEDUP’s technical community groups and the various leadership structures in the settlements.

New intern Sumaya described her experience in working directly with the community

 We met with leadership at the community hall to initiate community mapping process where we mapped out key areas and “problem” areas, as described by the Magandaganda community. Members expressed a desire to have their own yards as they are experiencing disputes regarding unclear tenure. A few members of the leadership also showed some hostility and hesitation as they felt that their concerns are not being taken further fast enough. They also expressed concern regarding the risk of crossing the rail-line that borders the settlement.

The CUFF teams are working on several projects in the City of Johannesburg and Ekurheleni such as Marathon, Delport, Peter Mokaba,  Innesfree and Magandaganda. These projects vary from the installation of communal taps to the allocation of plots in denser settlements.

Mohau Melani, regional ISN coordinator, explained the process of engaging the communities as follows,

 The enumeration will provide the settlement committee with total knowledge of everybody who is the settlement. This will also assist the community in dealing with and control of allocation into sites once their measured into a layout … The community has promised to provide us with the background history of the settlement when the community meets with ISN and CORC technical teams. ISN delegates assist the community with the measurement and costing of the pipes in order to increase a number of taps in the settlement.

The collaboration between community organisations and committees that drive local development agendas, networking at the regional level via ISN, and receive technical support from CORC and ISN is proving to be an indispensable model for community driven development.

Simultaneously the CUFF project teams are profiling and collecting critical data to prepare identified settlements for larger development processes through the National Upgrading Support Programme (NUSP).

Father Jorge Anzorena (82) is an Argentinian by birth and entered the Jesuit (Society of Jesus) order in his early thirties when he was ordained as a priest. He completed a PhD in Architecture from the University of Tokyo and has received numerous accolades such as the prestigious Ramon Magsaysay Award for International Understanding in 1994. Prior to his retirement around several years ago, Fr. Jorge taught at Sofia University in Tokyo six months of every year. The remaining six months he literally traveled around the world visiting low-income housing activities and building coalitions and networks of the urban poor.

When receiving the Ramon Magsaysay award, it was said of Father Jorge,

Given Anzorena’s nonstop networking over the years, it was probably inevitable that his many friends would also become friends with each other. Among the consequences of this networking, in 1988, was the creation of the Asian Coalition for Housing Rights (ACHR). Founded in Thailand by several of Anzorena’s longtime associates in the world of housing, its goals reflect the interests and commitments he shares with them. In the words of its founding declaration, these are: “to articulate and promote the conception of people’s laws and rights to housing; to put an end to evictions and displacements of people; and to define and achieve the housing rights of all.”

The coalition now links nearly a thousand like-minded organizations and individuals throughout Asia. Anzorena’s newsletter and annual pilgrimages constitute essential ties that bind the members together. Characteristically, however, Anzorena says the credit for ACHR should not be accorded to him. “They are just friends of mine,” he says. And it is true that the coalition has developed a life of its own. But Anzorena’s philosophy guides its efforts. Among ACHR’s fundamental principles, for example, indeed its operating credo, is that the contribution of the people themselves is essential both to identifying the true needs of the poor as well as to developing strategies to meet those needs. This is Anzorena to the core.

Father Jorge visits the South African alliance associated with SDI once a year. This is really a time of reflection and recasting ideas and visions of ways and means of building networks of the urban and rural poor.

On the 8th October, Father Jorge Anzorena made a presentation to the CORC Cape Town office on the three groups in Thailand and their experiences in building institutions for collaborative planning. He speaks about some of the initial champions of the community based groups and support organisations, the political and civic culture, evictions and responses from organised communities, savings and social capital, and other critical aspects according to his grassroots observations.

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Below follows a transcript of his introduction, with the full sound-clip available for online steaming.

Today I will speak about three groups that have a lot of things in common and want to see change and help the people to develop.

The one group is the organisation of the slum dwellers in Thailand. They have been trying to improve the situation and to have permanent things … Then there was also CODI (Community Organisation Development Institute), which you know of, which had many creative people and this was needed because people in government could not be very creative because they had so many rules. The other day when we were talking we said that we also have constraints, but it is the rules themselves. Seven to eight people were very creative in organising people in different activities, not only as recipients, but as actors in their development. The basic things are very much centred in the people, and are very flexible. The main mission is that it belonged to the urban poor, and later the rural poor too because they were so efficient. This is something that is very unique and creative because this institute is so flexible in the laws that activate the people.

So there are these three groups. One is government, and the two activities outlined above. They have some common approach. The basic things are that the poor has the energy to solve their problems. This means that it is not the government or the NGO, but basically the people need to solve their own problems. But they need some help in organising and then to solve the problem. The people should be the main actor in their activities. Even though the government is very flexible but there are things that they can not do. This is where these two groups come in. Firstly, the formations of slums and the coordination centre. It is a community-driven thing. In the 1990s the government was a military dictatorship, and the NGOs could not operate.

Learn more:

• Father Jorge has been writing a news bulletin about his travels for the past 30 years. The SALVIP collection are some of his favourites
• “What I have learned in the past 34 years”: A transcript of Father Jorge Anzorena, speaking at the ACHR Regional Meeting in Bangkok,  January 27, 2011

By Katia Savchuk, cross posted from The Guardian’s “Poverty Matters Blog”, Monday 8 October

The first global fund to give poor people direct control over urban development spending is having more than just a local impact

Rose Molokoane, who helps allocate millions of dollars to urban improvement projects around the world, lives in a South African informal settlement. She has spent more than 20 years organising urban poor communities, helping them to pool savings and obtain land and housing. Molokoane is also a prominent member of Urban Poor Fund International, the first global fund to give poor people direct control over development spending in cities.

“We are sick and tired of becoming the objects of development,” she told an audience at a conference in Brazil last year. “We want to build our own destiny.”

The fund was launched in 2007 by Shack/Slum Dwellers International(SDI), a network of community-based federations in 33 countries across Asia, Africa and Latin America. Since then, it has channelled more than $17.8m (£11m) in capital and technical assistance to more than 150 community-run projects in cities.

The innovative fund lets poor communities define development strategies and manage capital from neighbourhood to global level. Urban poor federations and supporting NGOs in the network submit proposals for community projects, which are evaluated by a council of long-time federation leaders, including Molokoane. Money allocated is accompanied by strategic advice from a board of government ministers.

Resources flow through national funds to local savings collectives, mostly made up of women, that contribute their share and implement projects. Recouped money feeds back to a national revolving account. Ultimately, the goal is to create a robust network of national funds that can independently attract government and private-sector investment and help shape urban development agendas.

The fund has financed (pdf) the construction of 50,000 homes, secured tenure for 20,000 families, and supported projects in 18 countries. Without high overheads or fancy consultants, it has directly benefited poor families.

While the tangible outputs are impressive, the greatest gains don’t fit neatly into a spreadsheet. Unlike most development financing, the fund invests as much in social processes as physical projects. By supporting strategies like learning exchanges and community-based surveys, it helps urban poor groups build skills and connections across cities, regions and continents.

The fund also allows poor communities to attract external resources and make a political impact. Capital helps federations leverage finance from governments, banks and donors, while demonstration projects encourage broader investment or policy shifts. For example, projects have produced pro-poor changes in building regulations and attracted state housing subsidies. The fund also helps give poor groups a voice in municipalities and international circles. The bottom line is not full cost-recovery for atomised projects on three-year timetables; it is long-term political transformation.

The benefits of this financing model were evident in Mukuru Sinai, an informal settlement hugging an oil pipeline in Nairobi’s industrial zone. In 2009, the fund awarded $315,000 to a savings collective of 2,000 families who, renting homes on private land there, suffered constant threats of eviction and gas explosions. Armed with capital, they got a bank loan to buy 23 acres of nearby land for just over $1m, and a government pledge to provide infrastructure. Tenants are now drawing up plans to build homes, partly subsidised by developing for-sale housing on the plot. Leaders are hopeful not only that the project becomes a pilot for other informal settlements on private land in Nairobi, but also that locals will share lessons with communities in Kenya and beyond.

The cost-effectiveness and broad impact of this financing model points to the need for placing urban poor communities at the helm of development spending in cities. “All successful urban initiatives have been ones that have placed people’s knowledge and people’s action at the centre of the process,” says Diana Mitlin, a researcher at theInternational Institute for Environment and Development who has worked with SDI for more than a decade. “That doesn’t mean professionals are not needed, but it means professionals acknowledge the limitations of their role.”

Despite its success, the model faces challenges. The international fund needs to attract money, because it does not recover investments. But many donors either lack understanding of the fund’s innovative strategy or consider it too risky.

“It’s much easier to cushion yourself behind different agencies and make sure you get your money back,” says SDI co-ordinator Celine D’Cruz. “It’s much more risky to give the money straight to the mouth of the tiger. But that is exactly where the real change is meant to happen.”

Leveraging external resources and getting cities to partner with urban poor groups is also a challenge. Success stories abound, but in many places there is a long path from occasional compromises to lasting partnerships and policy changes.

The fund’s success also depends on strong community organisations. Many SDI affiliates have mobilised for decades, but newer members require time to ensure that individual projects yield stable federations and political gains. The organisation’s network extends to 388 cities and expands constantly, but the fund remains limited if only member groups have access.

To make a bigger impact, D’Cruz believes urban poor funds must be established on a city scale, governed by community leaders, civil society groups and city officials, and implemented with a strong community base.

“That would be a dream,” D’Cruz says. “And actually, it’s such a simple solution. It cuts through all the red tape.”

By Jeff Thomas (on behalf of CORC)

The SANPAD (South African /Netherlands Research Programme on Alternatives in Development), which has since 1997 been financed by the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs, has been financing research, research capacity building initiatives and research support activities over the past 10 years. The SANPAD Phase 3 (2008-2013) programme will contribute to the South African National research and development goals and agenda, the goals of the South African Higher Education Sector and the goals of the Royal Netherlands Embassy (herein after referred to as the Embassy) on research and development. The IBSA (India, Brazil and South Africa) partnership and the new initiatives were introduced to ensure the success of the informing global policy deliberation from a Southern perspective.

Patience, Phumelele and Jeff from the CORC Durban office attended a workshop run by SANPAD which was held to plan for a conference with the title “Rural Migration, Urban Renewal and Slum Clearance – a challenge for mega cities in the South: Development of a Sustainable Settlement Livelihoods Model in Durban/eThekwini” to be held in February 2013. CORC was asked to represent a Civil Society perspective on whether or not there is room for livelihoods in informal settlements. In our presentation we took the opportunity to inform delegates, who comprised mainly eThekwini Municipal officials as well as local academics and academics from the Netherlands, who have been working in Brazil, and some from India, on the SA SDI Alliance and particularly the work of ISN in informal settlements, as well as to provide some insights into the more informal types of livelihoods.

We also made the point that community participation in enumeration and re-blocking activities could provide those who carried out this work to develop a level of skills that they may be able to use in other contexts to generate some income for themselves. Our participation has led to a number of further useful contacts in the Municipality as well as a possibility for collaboration between SA SDI Alliance and SANPAD, if there is a feeling that this would be of benefit to us. Jeff was asked to be part of a team tasked with planning for the proposed conference in February, particularly with respect to CORC assisting the academics, both local and international, with links into local informal settlements.

[vimeo width=”620″ height=”465″]http://vimeo.com/49875035[/vimeo]

Watch this documentary film by the Pretoria Picture Company Inc. on the changing dynamics and identities of Slovo Park settlement south of Soweto. Slovo Park is also aligned to the Informal Settlement Network, and in collaboration with universities and other stakeholders, design solutions have been tabled in partnership meetings. The documentary surfaces some of the finely granulated nuances in building sustainable human settlements. According to the film makers,

Slovo Park is situated in a politically and socially sensitive stretch of land south of Soweto. The community has been known by national government as Nancefield, by local council as Olifantsvlei and in the last five years as Slovo Park – named in honour of South Africa’s first minister of housing and former Umkhonto we Sizwe General, Joe Slovo.

This forced changing of identity reflects an on-going struggle faced by the leadership of Slovo Park to gain recognition as a legitimate settlement to access governmental support. This battle has been fought through constant shifts in governmental policy, power and promises for the community of Slovo Park. Amidst the struggle, stories of sinister land dealings have emerged, outlining a possible truth that the ground beneath Slovo Park could have been sold from under the community’s feet. These allegations surface as the leadership of Slovo Park prepares itself to take action.

This video illustrates how incremental upgrading releases the imagination of communities in engaging local governments. The communities intimate understanding of infrastructure grinds and networks makes service delivery, development and ultimately sustainable human settlements possible. Buck’s, one of the community leaders, deliberations on the nature of service delivery is particularly insightful:

Because already we have got sewerage pipes that are running as far as Soweto. The one alongside the boundary road is running from as far as Leratong, and imagine we don’t have sewerage here but we can transport other people’s stuff from as “Die Kloof”. We have the dams adjacent to us; it is not even 100m to walk to the dam, and still we cant get pipes to there. But still the engineers are saying that it is impossible to have sewerage in the area. But already there are pipes running in the area and so you ask yourself, “Why is it so diffent and difficult if we must get, but the previous engineers, the previous government, installed the sewerage pipes that are running through the informal settlement that we are in”. So you ask yourself, “is it different from this year’s engineers to yesteryear’s engineers”. I don’t know how to call it, but that is what they say!

If government can’t come to us, let us do it for ourselves. We have started with a hall, which we want to expand into a multi-purpose centre for the community. We don’t have playggrounds, we don’t have parks, we don’t have a hall, which makes it difficult for kids to concentrate on their lives. So the multipurpose will help to bring them together and giving them something to do. At the same time, as the community, we will have a space to have our meetings for our offices (because we have many forums in the community, such as the business forum). My wish is to have a proper toilet, just like everyone else. Just like the premier Nomvula Mokonyane, just like our president Jacob Zuma’s toilet, that’s my wish. That has been my wish since I was a kid, and I am already 44 years old. My family has accepted this is how we will live in the meantime.