The Community Organisation Resource Centre (CORC) is a nucleus for professionals and grassroots activists who think independently yet plan and act collectively. CORC provides support to networks of urban and rural poor communities who mobilize themselves around their own resources and capacities. CORC's interventions are designed to enable these communities to learn from one another and to create solidarity and unity in order to be able to broker deals with formal institutions, especially the State. Click here to read more.
FEDUP scoops up two provincial Govan Mbeki awards for outstanding housing developments
By Walter Fieuw, CORC
The Govan Mbeki Human Settlements awards are a prestigious ceremony hosted by the National Department of Human Settlements in two stages: the Provincial and the National. The award ceremony aims to showcase and demonstrate the work done by the department at both tiers and promotes best practices in meeting the delivery mandate of the Presidency’s Outcome 8, which is aligned with the vision of building sustainable human settlements and meeting the Millennium Development Goals. The MEC of Human Settlements at the Provincial tier nominates projects in the five specified categories which displays exceptional quality, promotes best practice, brings together stakeholders, and most importantly, improving the quality of life for the beneficiary-partners.
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Balancing agency and structure in Cape Town
By Walter Fieuw, CORC
One of the salient challenges when capacitated networks of the urban poor build partnerships with the local government is balancing the agency of micro-level interventions and practices with the macro-level structures of governance and body of rules. Perhaps then the most important aspect of forging partnerships is the ability to negotiate and transact around a common set of problems and agendas guided by social and political change. Government is obligated by the Municipal Systems Act of 2000 to create a “culture of community participation” where the community has a direct interest and influence on the design of governance arrangements. The onus lies both of communities and local governments to create these “cultures”.
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Community know – Community flow; Community show – Community grow
By Walter Fieuw, CORC
Much effort has been spent on crafting democratic spaces where ordinary citizens have a direct voice in the way service delivery is conceptualised and operationalised. Some of these spaces include ward committees, service delivery consultations, IDP workshops and many other democratic structures underwritten by major policy and legislation governing “developmental local government”. This is sometimes called “invited spaces”. However, these structures are often co-opted by political interests and politics of patronage.
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No more white elephants: Mshini Wam community architects assisted by University of Botswana planning students
By Walter Fieuw, CORC
The formal and the informal co-exist in Joe Slovo Park, Milnerton, Cape Town. Joe Slovo Park is a formal township established in the 1990s when City planners sought to eradicate informality, especially that of Marcomi Beam, and establish a low-income neighborhood. Those who were not catered for in the formal houses invaded open spaces in the newly laid-out township. This “re-informalisation” resulted in a juxtaposition of formal houses and informal backyarder shacks. In Mshini Wam, one such neighborhood of backyarder shacks located in-between the boundaries of formal RDP houses, the shacks are densely arranged and struggle to gain access to basic services.
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MORE FIRE! Deputy Minister visits Mshini Wam and Siyahlala settlements in Joe Slovo Park
By Walter Fieuw, CORC
On Thursday 23 February 2012, while South Africa were debating the implications of Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan’s budget speech, another group was preparing to put action to words. Community leaders from across the country and associated with the Informal Settlement Network (ISN) were gathering in a community hall in Joe Slovo Park, Milnerton, Cape Town. This group attended a workshop during the week on enumerations, mapping and blocking out of their settlements. The energy was bouncing off the walls, and detonated into a joyous singing-dancing affair along Freedom Way.
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