uTshani Fund

Rose Molokoane, national coordinator of the FEDUP, reading the memo to the office of the premier

ATT: Premier Nomvula Mokonyane

Gauteng Provincial Government Building,
East wing,
13th Floor,
30 Simmonds Street,
Marshalltown, JOHANNESBURG

11 September 2012

We, the Informal Settlement Network (ISN) in Gauteng, place the following before the office of the Premier:

1. The Gauteng Government must be the first Provincial Government to declare that it is an “informal settlement friendly Government” and that there shall be no evictions in the Province. Evictions destroy not only people’s shelters, but also people’s livelihoods, dignity and social support networks. Where evictions are absolutely unavoidable, relocations need to be done in consultation with the affected community and to suitable land, mutually identified by the people and the relevant authorities.

2. Relocations must be an act of last resort. Instead Provincial Government must develop with us, the poor, proper master plans and specific settlement plans for the in-situ upgrading of communities.

3. In order to achieve these objectives the Provincial Government must create a proper executable working relationship that create strong partnerships between the Organized Poor and local governments, so that the voices of the poor come from the poor themselves.

4. There must be a formal partnership between Government and the Organized Poor, linked to a Memorandum of Understanding, and Joint Working Groups consisting of organized urban poor representatives, local and metropolitan government officials, support NGOs, other relevant stakeholders, and provincial and national government (when possible), that meet on a regular basis, a joint action plan for the upgrading of all Informal Settlements in the province and a Finance Facility to fund these initiatives.

5. The Provincial Government must do away with consultants whose vision of city growth makes them anti-development in the living environments of the Urban Poor.

5. a) The establishment of a broad based representative forum of the urban poor as proposed by the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) must create a space for a real partnership to emerge which will allow us, the Urban Poor, to speak for ourselves and to develop and plan as equal partners.

5. b) The Joint Working Group must be accountable to the broad based representative forum.

6. The nature of engagement outlined in the proposed MoU between the organized poor and local government should be premised on frequent and meaningful engagements, such as monthly meetings which include multiple stakeholders and where the agendas of the poor are respected and acted upon. These political spaces must have the ability to influence resource allocation and can be integrated with formal participatory processes. It is recommended that a senior political figure with executive power such as the MMC and/or the Mayor chair the forums.

7. This Joint Working Group must be allowed to formulate policies that:

• Enable the rapid delivery of interim and emergency services such as water, sanitation, electrification, waste removal and other infrastructure development priorities in Informal Settlements;
• Enable the creation of sustainable and integrated human settlements which integrates Informal Settlements with the formal cities, including transport, job and livelihood creation, and social and economic amenities;
• Develop a realistic, pragmatic and acceptable plan to jointly assess all Informal Settlements that are regarded as being on dolomitic soil and create proper and acceptable plans to rehabilitate the land;
• Ensure that the Provincial Government re-adopt the National Housing Policy supported by the National Upgrading Support Programme (NUSP), and by doing multiple practical upgrading pilot projects with the people that will help inform the National Government and NUSP how Informal Settlement Upgrading can be improved and scaled up;
• Train Communities and Government, including city Governments to work together with organized communities of the Urban Poor to develop and implement these projects;

8. It is crucial that municipal officials, project managers, and field officers understand and come to grips with community processes. A continual learning environment must be created. This can occur through peer-to-peer learning exchanges between municipalities and poor communities.

9.  The Government should support the establishment of city-wide pro-poor finance facility co-managed by organized communities, supportive NGOs, and local and metropolitan governments. These facilities should be able to give rapid access to incremental initiatives identified by informal settlement communities.

10. The local and metropolitan government and organized communities use the community based enumerations and household surveys, mapping, biometric and photographic information system as a primary instrument for development prioritization, planning and implementation, which is co-managed in Geographic Informal Systems (GIS) databases.

11.  We support the international launch of the World Urban Poor Forum (WUPF) which was recently inaugurated by Shack / Slum Dwellers International (SDI) and endorsed the Executive Director of the UN Habitat at the World Urban Forum in Naples, Italy held in September 2012.

We, the Informal Settlement Network (ISN) in Gauteng, expect to hear from the Premier’s office on the issues raised by no later than Wednesday 10 October 2012 in writing and arrangement for a meeting and discuss the details. Contact us at:

 ISN Gauteng, 1st Floor, Arcacia Grove, Houghton Estate Office Park, 2 Osborn Road, Houghton, Johannesburg 2192 (tel: 011 483 0363).

On Tuesday 11 September 2012, informal settlement communities from across Gauteng will march on the Gauteng Premier’s office to hand over a memorandum outlining demands and requests for “informal settlement friendly government”. The Informal Settlement Network (ISN), a social movement that builds the voice of the poor and finds solutions to urban poverty, have mobilised informal settlements in Johannesburg, Ekurhuleni, Sedibeng, Mogale City, and Tswane. The purpose of the solidarity march is to rally around evictions and insecure tenure, poor water and sanitation service levels, no meaningful engagement, and other governance issues. The solidarity march will start at 9:00 on Mary Fitzgerald square in Newtown, following Bree street and Simmons street to the Premier’s office.

Communities across Gauteng have been subject to violent evictions and poor service delivery. In the month of August the Johannesburg Metropolitan Police Department (JMPD) launched a “rogue mission” to demolish shacks on open plots and inside abandoned factories in Marlboro South, an industrial area 3km from Sandton. Hundreds of families have been displaced ever since. This was well documented by major press agencies. What happened in Marlboro is a microcosm of the lack of meaningful engagement between government and communities; e.g. Doornkop, Thembelihle, Finetown Proper, Klipspruit, Ramaphosa, and many others share similar experiences of disenfranchisement.

The ISN is a different kind of social movement that builds partnerships with government in a collaborative manner to advance people-centred development and improved service delivery. Communities are not passive bystanders to service delivery but active stakeholders in decision making processes. However, this level of partnership has not been achieved. Although the ISN have set up monthly dialogues with government, a formalised partnership has not been forthcoming in the City of Joburg and Ekurhuleni.

The media is invited to document this mass grassroots initiative in raising the voice and plight of the poor.

Community leader contacts:

Sipho Vanga – ISN Ekuhuleni – 073 721 5374

Mohau Melani – ISN Joburg – 072 890 9022

Charles Gininda– Marlboro community leader – 078 514 4053

Patrick Magebhula – ISN national coordinator – 082 805 4011

Mzwanele Zulu – ISN national coordinator – 082 670 2068

Image credit: http://mg.co.za/article/2012-08-22-marlboro-simmers-a-community-destroyed-by-a-breakdown-in-communication

In August 2012 the Johannesburg Metropolitan Police Department illegally displaced and evicted more than 1,000 families from the industrial area of Marlboro South. The Informal Settlement Network (ISN) has recorded these violations of human rights and dignity in depth. The Marlboro community has been supported by South African SDI Alliance who provided emergency shelter, and Lawyers for Human Rights who have supported the community’s legal action.

The Informal Settlement Network (ISN), which pulls together more than 130 settlements across Gauteng Province, is now planning to take direct action by organising a public protest march on Tuesday, 11th September. The ISN has been working in collaboration with the City of Joburg and Ekurhuleni metros for more than three years but have not progressed at all in formalising partnerships that would include informal settlement residents as active stakeholders in the service delivery process, not passive recipiants. A press release will follow soon to outline the programme.

On Friday 7 September, a media briefing will be held in Marlboro in the lead-up to the march, where more than 15,000 informal settlement dwellers for 130 settlements are expected to peacefully march on the Premier’s office and hand over a memorandum. At the briefing, to be held on the corner of 2nd Avenue and 4th Street, Marlboro, Sandton, the ISN will talk through the challenges of building partnerships with local government. The media briefing aims to inform journalists and other affected and concerned parties on the Marlboro situation, and the struggle of the poor in these “world class cities”. The briefing will start at 14:00. The ISN is calling on the media to attend this briefing in the lead-up of the protest march on the 11th of September. 

Contact persons: Informal Settlement Network
Sipho Vanga – 073 721 5374
General Moyo – 073 430 7006
Mzwanele Zulu – 082 670 2068
Mahau Melanie – 072 890 9022

Contact persons: Marlboro leadership
Tapelo – 071 035 5937
Charles – 078 514 4053

Read this press release sent in August 2012 by the Informal Settlement Network

The Marlboro evictions were well documented by major newspapers. Read of the these here:

Mail and Guardian
The Sowetan
Daily Maverick
Eyewitness News
The Star

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.

By Walter Fieuw (on behalf of CORC)

On the 13th of August, heavy machinery rolled in on the tattered and teared Marlboro Industrial area. Charles and Tapelo, community leaders in Marlboro, had to look on as the bulldozers started tearing into Chico’s Ice Cream Factory, which was home to 109 families, or 282 people. Chico’s Ice Cream Factory is but one of 53 derelict buildings that the Marboro community, in partnership with ISN and CORC, enumerated between September and October 2011. Community members were trained to administer the questionnaire and worked closely with the CORC Johannesburg office in capturing the data into databases.

Early in August, the Alliance reported on the evictions that started on August 2nd when Johannesburg Metropolitan Police Department (JMPD) cracked down on the settlement with no eviction order. In the early morning hours, when residents were leaving for work, the JMPD moved in on 3 occupied sites and demolished 300 dwellings. They refused to talk to the community leadership and presented no formal interdiction from the court, only offering NGO representatives a hand written statement in a note book as paperwork for such eviction. They claimed that notice was given with no supporting documentation, then went on to say they don’t need to give notice because the of the 72 hour trespassing by-law which according to legal representatives requires even more paperwork than a general eviction order. The JMPD has not communicated its mandate with the housing department and now as result over 400 residents of Marlboro are now out on the street with no alternative housing options.

Evictions have been ravaging the area since the 2nd of August, leaving many people homeless. The Johannesburg Metropolitan Police Department (JMPD), and more specifically, the by-laws management department, have been carrying out these illegal evictions. These are illegal, because according the laws protecting poor people from the onslaughts of local governments and/or land owners, the evicting party needs to formally obtain an eviction order, which is granted by regional courts. In these hearings, the judges consider all the aspects of the evicting party’s request, which includes whether alternatives to upgrading has been considered (such as upgrading the informal area), what the impact on vulnerable people would be (woman, children and the elderly), and what the relocation options are (such as consolidation with other informal areas, housing developments, etc). Constitutional Court cases have resulted in a number of processes that needs to be adhered too. The JMPD did not follow any of these legal routes, and have been on a rouge mission to clear the Marlboro area of all informal settlers.

Chico’s is one such a factory that is now being destroyed, and all 282 inhabitants have been displaced. Although the Alliance, through the Community Upgrading Financing Facility, have been able to secure three army-style tents to the value of R30,000, this merely serves 40 families. More tents are now forthcoming as relief donations are trickling into Marlboro area. There does not seem to be any hope that the residents of Chico’s will be sleeping in even the most elementary accommodation for the next while.

The factory used to have a very peculiar housing typology. To make more space available, the community built a sturdy 2nd level of shack above the first. These pictures illustrate the nature of settlement in one of these factories.

With the decline in industrial activity in the late 1980s, the factory owners rented out these buildings to poor families living in overcrowded conditions in neighboring townships such as Alexandra. Charles, a community leader in the area, mentioned that

the history here is actually that people started staying in these factories. They were renting because some owners advertised for rentals. So the people came in their numbers. But later on, the City actually gave some court orders that people had to vacate. We boycotted that and went back to the owners and they ran away and stayed with the City. We had a media statement that says we can not be moved from these areas unless they have an alternative. So that is how they started staying in these buildings.

Chico’s used to be an Ice Cream factory located on 4th street, where not even the brave footsoldiers of Google Streetview dared to venture (when dragging the Google Streetview icon over Marlboro area, on 5th Street is covered). But the enumeration of Chico’s, as with all other 53 factories in the Marlboro area, goes much deeper than technology can reach. The enumeration has captured a socio-economic and demographic profile of all the residents that used to live here. Although the residents have faced fires in the past, such as the 18 June 2010 fire that destroyed a large number of shacks, as reported by Africa Media Online, the community has been able to regroup and assist those who lost it all. These social ties are more than moral solidarity but display the resilience of communities to adapt and recover.

Chico’s factory is also called Building 77. These building were referenced by these numbers before the enumeration started. The enumeration data therefore has two levels: by building, and by shack number (which was numbered in the enumeration exercise). By referencing both building data and shack data, a common dataset is developed that serves as the basis for spatially tagging enumeration data. In this way, the data becomes alive. The data tells the stories of what used to be left of Chico’s Ice Cream factory.

In October 2011, CORC produced a short video documenting the impressions of Marlboro community leaders on the enumeration process. At 2:18 in the video, an interview with a young man living in Chico’s is captured. He said,

I live here in Chico’s. I have been living here for 11 years. I stay with my mother. Here in Chico’s we are very poor, if I can put it like that.

In another interview, a young man living with his girlfriend said the following when asked by Charles what his expectations are for development in the area:

Up to date, I have been living in this area. Now the problem that I am having is unavailability of jobs and better accommodation. From the information I am receiving from different people, there are promises to improve the area, but I don’t know how long it is going to take.

CORC has drafted a preliminary enumeration report on the findings. The enumeration breaks down the enumeration data of all 53 factories and categorises the findings by population statistics, migration, education levels, social grant recipients, occupation and income levels, and finally, tracks the communities’ development aspirations. On the enumeration process, Charles said

The ISN and FEDUP have introduced a programme of enumeration. So with the enumeration, we are trying to arm ourselves and say to the City, “We are the people of Marlboro. How many are we? We stay in a space of this size”. And so we will be able to talk how then the development will be. So we hope with the programme of the FEDUP and ISN we believe that something will come up. We are saving, and saying to the government, “This is what we are doing, then can you come in and join us in making the area we are living in better”.

Charle’s wishes will not realise. Chico’s have been destroyed. But the sword cuts both ways. While the positive side of community based knowledge generation through enumeration, as experience by millions of people making up the federations aligned to Shack / Slum Dwellers International (see this series of research papers), materialises citizenship when this grassroots knowledge drives development agendas, the data will now be used as a protections mechanism in the court of law. The community possess the most detailed data on the individuals and families affected in the evictions. The sword of knowledge will now be deployed to fight back on the inhumane and draconian actions of the City of Joburg.

Marlboro community is working alongside Lawyers for Human Rights and instructed them instructed to demand an end to the evictions and failing that, to proceed on an urgent basis to the High Court for relief. Said Louise du Plessis, senior attorney in LHR’s Land and Housing Unit,

This situation is shocking. The law is clear. There are countless court orders requiring a court order before an eviction can take place. This blatant disregard for what the courts have repeatedly said is especially worrying considering JMPD is tasked with upholding the law.

Who are giving these orders? Are the factory owners involved in the eviction process, or is this a rouge mission by the JMPD? These are the questions that the community with support by CORC and Lawyers for Human Rights will be uncovering.

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By Walter Fieuw (on behalf of CORC)

The socio-spatial dilemma

The interactions between spatial and social processes have occupied the imaginations of planners, geographers, urban designers and even economists and philosophers for many years. Essentially, urban and regional spaces are not removed from their ideological and political settings, but rather a reproduction of such social, cultural, political and economical relationships. Urban space is therefore not equal, but rather contested, especially in the intersections of the formal and the informal.

Marlboro Industrial is a contested inner-city slum in the wealthy suburb of Sandton in Johannesburg. The area has a complicated history. With the decline of industrial activity in the late 1980s, and the collapse of apartheid pass-laws, desperate factory owners advertised cheap accommodation in Marlboro Industrial area. People flooded from the overcrowded Alexandra and other surrounding townships. The informal rental agreement was simple: rent paying occupiers had the right to inhabit the derelict factories and construct informal dwellings. However, the residents of the inner-city slum has faced evictions ever since, with a spike in activity in 2012 (see these media reports: Daily Maverick, City Press, The Daily Sun, Independent Online and many more). The community, in response to the increased eviction threats, have formed a number of crises committees, such as the Marlboro Warehouse Crisis Committee (MWCC).

 Marlboro Studio

In October 2011, the MWCC approached the Informal Settlement Network (ISN), a network of settlement-level community based organisations mobilising local capacities around service delivery issues, to facilitate the enumeration of the settlement. Once the enumeration of the factory dwellers were completed, which is now the baseline with which the community counteracts the government’s eviction threats, the MWCC requested of support organisation CORC and university partner UJ to launch a design studio to explore tenure options linked to a long-term development plan.

The studio is now in full swing. The Marlboro Industrial Belt has been divided into 5 strips and will be covered by 10 groups, each led by a lecturer.

The students and community members were given a short briefing describing the task of field map and what they were required to find in the day, then sent into the field to begin the mapping process. They are working together to understand and document the nature of their respective areas of focus. Community members share their local knowledge of site conditions, while students captured the data while passing on the graphic skills of mapping. Regular meetings are held to discuss their findings, and interpret the spatial analysis together. In this way, the mapping of social processes in and between the factories, backyard shacks, roads and open spaces, and other urban characteristics are captured to reveal a rich spatial narrative. Yet, although the stories of Marlboro residents speak of resilience and inclusionary measures to ensure the best use of this area, their efforts are continually under threat.

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Marlboro evictions

On August 2nd, Johannesburg Metropolitan Police Department (JMPD) cracked down on the settlement with no eviction order. In the early morning hours, when residents were leaving for work, the JMPD moved in on 3 occupied sites and demolished 300 dwellings. They refused to talk to the community leadership and presented no formal interdiction from the court, only offering NGO representatives a hand written statement in a note book as paperwork for such eviction. They claimed that notice was given with no supporting documentation, then went on to say they don’t need to give notice because the of the 72 hour trespassing by-law which according to legal representatives requires even more paperwork than a general eviction order. The JMPD has not communicated its mandate with the housing department and now as result over 400 residents of Marlboro are now out on the street with no alternative housing options.

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A community member remarked to Eyewitness News,

At around 9:30 in the morning, we see the Metro guys here; coming to our area. They came to demolish the shacks without any notice, without any legal documents. They came to say, “No! You have to vacate the building.”

Socio-spatial exclusion

The urbanisation dynamics of Johannesburg is characterised by three main typologies of informality: 1) informal settlements, which have emerged from land invasions; 2) overcrowded rental stock and formal townships (including backyarders); and 3) inner-city degradation and dilapidated buildings, such as Marlboro Industrial. Each of these typologies have their own histories and measures of exclusion. Socio-spatial exclusion refers to the measures of how marginalised communities are denied access to the city, and in building more integrated and spatially just societies, becomes a rally cry for more inclusionary and pro-poor cities. In the case of Marlboro, the community is mobilising local resources to provide alternatives to evictions. The design studio aims to create the spatial analysis and social-use mapping required to really understand this complex informality typology.

Communities are providing the essential insights needed to break the exclusionary trap revealed by socio-spatial analysis. Evictions continue to break down the essential fibers that bind this community together. However, cities are still governed by sanitised conceptions of urban space, regulated by land-use planning and other planning apparatuses. These formal processes inherently exclude the poor, and denies access to the city.