The Human Settlements Department in the City of Ekurhuleni has responded positively to a petition for re-blocking, in-situ upgrading and access to adequate basic services by Railway residents supported by Planact. In July 2021, residents of Railway alongside Planact...
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...
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...
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....
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...
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...
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...
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...
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,...
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 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...
Asivikelane #15 results show that upgrading projects are failing to deliver. Half of residents have been promised, but failed to receive, access to services. Asivikelane has observed the following in various Metros across the country: Most metro budgets for...
Water, sanitation and refuse removal services in informal settlements have deteriorated all over the country in the last few months. As national Covid-19 relief funding to metros has run out and metros’ own revenue has declined, they have started reducing services to...
Asivikelane 14 reports that water, sanitation and refuse removal services in informal settlements have deteriorated all over the country in the last few months. As national COVID-19 relief funding to metros has run out and metros’ own revenues have declined, they have...
Local governments must table their budgets for the 2021/2022 financial year by 1 April 2021. They have played a central role in government’s COVID-19 response in informal settlements, with additional resources being found for water tanks, chemical toilets and refuse...
Planact together with International Budget Partnership South Africa conducted a survey to compare the lived experience by eMalahleni informal settements communities with the municipal water schedule. The survey shows that: The number of tanks in the municipal water...
Prepared by Wetu Memela and Hloniphile Simelane “We thought we had rights, we thought we had dignity, but when they leave open sewerage all over the settlements are we considered as human beings?” Nobantu Shabangu, Middelburg, Whilst the lockdown has...
We, at Planact, are fortunate to have met and shared our social audit work with the out-going Auditor-General of South Africa, Kimi Makwetu, who has since passed on. We are truly saddened by his untimely death and would like to extend our deepest condolences to his...