Latest Happenings

On Friday, 3 September, Noxolo Kabane, Thabile Sokupa and Peter Kimemia were at Maclear, the seat of the Elundini Local Municipality to present the draft Informal Trader’s Policy. They met with the relevant Municipal officials as well as a number of other stakeholders with whom they had very fruitful engagements. The closeout workshops for this project will be held in Mount Fletcher, Maclear and Ugie towns between  20-23 September. In the intervening period, Afesis-corplan will be preparing the final draft of the Policy.

The Southern African Custom’s Union Society held a conference in Ezulwini, Swaziland from 24 -27 August 2010 organised by the Council of Swaziland Churches.

SACU (Southern African Customs Union) is a customs union comprised of Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia, South Africa and Swaziland established in 1910, the five states are linked by a single tariff, charge no customs duties amongst themselves and have a common external tariff charged on none member states. Revenues generated are shared amongst the members on a quarterly time plan.

Approximately 80 people attended the conference. Thembi Mabhula attended on behalf of Afesis-corplan.

Afesis-corplan is continuously working with AsgiSA-EC and has started working in Nyandeni Local Municipalities as social facilitators. We are currently working with the Coza, Mhlanga, Mtyu and Sibangweni communities. These communities have already gone through the first year of the project and are in the process of sharing the harvest that will remain with the community. The AsgiSA-EC Projects are a strategy that government is using to alleviate poverty, develop commercial agriculture communities and support the rural development agenda of government.

Nontlantla Skenjana did a presentation on 20 August to the young people who are a part of the GAP Programme currently running in East London. The presentation topic was “Rural Development – Opportunities and Challenges”, focusing on what role young people can play in rural development in the Eastern Cape. GAP Youth Mentorship Programme is a NPO that seeks to address the needs of the youth in our city and province by providing a holistic education and training curriculum. For more information please contact the Programme at 043 726 8117 or on This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

The National Department of Human Settlements is hosting a PHP National Workshop on 25-26 August 2010.

The workshop will explore four topical issues outlined as workship objectives:
1. Ready access to dedicated funding to enable communities to play a meaningful role in community driven development processes.
2. Develop and streamline user friendly systems, processes, tools and templates required to upscale implementation of PHP.
3. Identify strategic interventions with spheres of government and other stakeholders to facilitate the rapid release of suitable well located land for PHP.
4. Government and PHP stakeholders to commit to performing agreed roles and responsibilities necessary for enabling up-scaling and effective implementation of PHP.

Ronald Elgin is attending on behalf of Afesis-corplan.

Erasmus University, Institute of Housing & Urban Studies of Rotterdam, in the Netherlands, is conducting a “City Revitalisation” two week seminar, which will be held at the Witwatersrand University, 16 – 27 August 2010. The seminar will look at strategies that contribute to “Liveable and Sustainable Inner-Cities in Southern African Countries”. It will have participants from different Southern African countries.

The objectives are to:
• Expand knowledge on the role of inner-cities in Southern African cities and in the lives of low income men and women;
• Expand knowledge on inner-city revitalisation and the challenges of the urban poor, in particular women;
• Develop new and improve skills in dealing with inner-city revitalisation and the challenges of the urban poor; as well as understanding how alternative and more progressive policies can create more inclusive and supportive environments;
• Exchange knowledge and experiences with fellow participants as well as IHS lecturers and lectures of the School of Architecture and Planning at WITS University;
• Aquire knowledge of the South African setting from other participants and the regional experts from the School of Architecture and Planning at WITS University.

Fred Kusambiza is attending the seminar.

Ikhala Trust, an independent community grant maker based in Port Elizabeth, invited Afesis-corplan to a one-day ‘WORKSTOP’ to explore Alternative Approaches for More Effective Social Impact on Wednesday, 11 August 2010 in East London.

Some of the discussion topics were:
1.    Surfacing and improving our questions about social change
2.    Diving into the deep-end – Transforming an informal settlement
3.    Some core ideas of social change from CDRA’s experience
4.    Introducing and workshopping the SDI (Slumdwellers International) approach

The participants agreed that it was important for the NGO sector to continue some of the discussions arising from the workshop.  The ECNGOC agreed to facilitate such discussions.

Afesis-corplan hosted CSAG workshops held on 21-23 and 28-30 July and  at the Great Kei Local Municipality in Komga.

The purpose of the workshops was to discuss relevant topics and identify ways in which civil society, individuals and organisations can influence and improve municipal financial conventions through legislation.

The CSAG project seeks to create broader platforms of communication between communities and municipalities. The overall objectives of the project include:
•    Improving municipal financial reporting to the public as per policy framework.
•    Identifying and equipping civil society  groups with the necessary monitoring and analytical tools to engage with municipal financial reporting conventions.
•    Engender a sense of ownership and responsibility for financial management in local civil society.

On Friday, 9 July 2010, Thabile Sokupa attended a meeting with ward committees in aMahlathi municipality. The meeting was held to draft a working plan for this year as well as to get a report back on the activities that have taken place in the last quarter.