Blog Articles
Get people involved in development
By Dr Hloniphile Simelane What is the developmental mandate of the newly elected municipal councils? In particular, what new interventions related to the Upgrading of Informal Settlements Programme will now be carried out to realise different results? The problem is...
The call for collaborative advocacy regarding land and housing issues affecting women
Prepared by Dr Hloniphile Simelane[1] A new platform for advocacy on gender equality Planact has joined the Women and Habitat Africa Working Group (WHAWG), which links up Habitat International Coalition (HIC) with many member organizations in Africa and with projects...
Basic services can protect and empower women
Asivikelane #20 shows that women access to basic services in informal settlements is closely tied to safety. In metropolitan municipalities, 74% of female residents reported feeling unsafe using municipal toilets at night and 24% feel unsafe doing so during the day....
Taps finally installed in Robert Sobukwe
The Robert Sobukwe informal settlement did not have adequate water services even during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic. On 13 May 2021 1to1 Agency of Engagement, Planact and Asivikelane tweeted about the dire situation in Robert Sobukwe. Mayor Mzwandile Masina and...
How government can show that it cares
Having restored peace and calm after last week’s events, government must work to restore the peoples’ trust in the following ways: Provide IMMEDIATE INCOME SUPPORT through a basic income grant or the COVID-19 social relief of distress grant - While the fiscus...
Asivikelane 18: The maintenance puzzle
Maintenance doesn’t help if there are no taps and toilets to start with. As Asivikelane has been reporting, many informal settlements across the country do not have access to taps and toilets at all. Any improvement of maintenance should be supplemented by...
How to get to green traffic lights in Ekurhuleni
Ekurhuleni has been the best performing metro since Asivikelane started a year ago. But even so, its traffic lights are not consistently green and there are many informal settlements that experience persistent water, sanitation and refuse removal problems. But this...
Green shoots, but will Metro budgets water them?
On the surface, Asivikelane #17 traffic lights appear bad. But if you take the time to look closely, you will see many green shoots of service delivery improvement starting to sprout. New toilets were built, and taps were installed in Buffalo City. Taps were repaired,...
Metro budgets prevent toilet, tap and refuse removal traffic lights from turning green
None of the metros’ 2021/22 budgets set aside funds specifically for the maintenance of informal settlement infrastructure. The result is that heavily used taps and toilets are not fixed when they break. Metro budgets also show no growth in allocations for the ad hoc...
Asivikelane Profiles: Informal settlement residents share how Asivikelane has impacted their lives
Asivikelane has conducted interviews with informal settlement residents in 13 municipalities. The purpose of these interviews was to find answers to the following questions since the inception of the #Asivikelane campaign and its impact on the lives of informal...