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...
We thank government, CSO partners and above all informal settlement residents for their work on Asivikelane and informal settlement services in 2020. In this release we think out loud about what government and Asivikelane should do about informal settlement services...
While national government reduced conditional grants to some metros, they all benefited from the R11 billion increase in equitable share funding in the national adjustments budget approved in August. Consequently, we see an overall increase in spending, but not for...
Up to 45% of informal settlement residents contracted the coronavirus in the first wave. This is not surprising because they are sharing dirty taps and toilets. The sharp increase in the number of red traffic lights in Asivikelane 11 makes us worry that the second...
Asivikelane has reported many persistent service delivery problems in informal settlements – some of which have yet not been addressed. This month we also asked residents whether anyone in their households has lost their jobs in the last 4 months. Sadly, but...
Asivikelane 9 shows that providing clean taps and toilets in informal settlements could be the most effective way of reducing Covid-19 infections. Informal settlements are hotspots for infection because they don't have enough taps and toilets, and these communal...