Vol18 No1

2012
janfebmarch

CREATIVE INDUSTRIES AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT SoCIAl hoUSINg IN NElSoN MANDElA METRo ThE WAY fORWARD

PoSINg ThE qUESTIoN oN ThE fUTURE of PRoVINCES AN ATTEMPT TO OPEN UP ThE DEbATE CREATINg A NETWORKED SOCIETY

AgRARIANISATIoN oR DE-AgRARIANISATIoN IN ThE EASTERN CAPE? ThE IMPLICATIONS fOR jOb CREATION IN ThE AgRICULTURAL SECTOR

THIS PUBLICATION IS SPONSORED BY THE FORD FOUNDATION

Contents
Posing the question on the future of Provinces > Nontando Ngamlana

Social housing in Nelson Mandela Metro: The Way Forward > Anthony Ngcezula

14

Creating a Networked Society > Noxolo Kabane

30 34

Local politics and factionalism: local government as a site of contestation > Pamela Masiko-Kambala

Agrarianisation or Deagrarianisation in the Eastern Cape? The implications for job creation in the agricultural sector > Clifford Mabhena (Phd)

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Making Co-Relations: Media and Civil Society > Penelope Vellem

Embracing Complexity: Supporting an Evolutionary Approach to Development > Ronald Eglin

Addressing Food Insecurity through the Household Food Security Programme > Artwell Chivhinge

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Small Scale Agriculture > Lashiola Kutya

38

The History of Foreign Aid Dependency: Challenges for Africa > Tinashe Nyatoro

10

Creative Industries and Rural Development > Clarah Dapira

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Posing the question on the future of ProvinCes

> NoNtaNdo NgamlaNa
Image by Openform

The debate around the future of provinces in South Africa is an old one that tends to gain momentum at certain points within the political calendar and die down again. In the run-up to the Polokwane African National Congress (ANC) conference in 2009 and during the review process of the White Paper on Local Governance, the debate was at its most intense stages. As usual, the debate is usually emotionalised and is full of party-political diatribes. Recent events in various provinces throughout the country have forced the debate back onto the table, only this time there is an added effort to move beyond the ideological clichs in debating the issue to looking at long-term goals of improving the quality of democracy in South Africa and the role provinces play or are to play in that. As mentioned before, this debate is mainly taking place within political party structures and processes. This article aims to lift the lid on this debate and

to pose it in the public domain. It presents some of the main arguments presented in the debate to aid the reader to formulate their own position and come to their own conclusion on what the future of provinces should be. As a point of departure, it may be useful to first look at the role of provinces currently. For far too long the role of provinces in South Africa has been dominated by the political concerns which dominated the constitutional negotiations of 1992 to 1994. The central political preoccupation at that time was the issue of power and the fear of the minority parties that central government would become too overbearing. The notion of countervailing power was and continues to be central to the current definitions and conceptions of the role of the second sphere of government in South Africa. Kitano and Rapoo (2001) note that major opposition parties, academics and proponents of

a multi-tier system of government saw provinces serving not only as multiple centres of power outside of central/ national government, but also as countervailing sources of political, legal and constitutional authority to be counterpoised against the power of central government. Therefore, the post-1994 provinces were positioned as secondorder prizes to be won by political parties which perceived no prospect of capturing power at central/ national level. This explains the frantic reaction by opposition parties at the slightest rumour that the ANC might be thinking of radically restructuring or abolishing provinces. Currently, the ANC has majority control in most provinces in the country. So why does it continually toy with whether it should abolish provinces completely, or restructure them into oversight structures to allow municipalities to become central institutions for implementing policy and delivering services to citizens? Vol18 No1

In the past, the ANC has traditionally been less enthusiastic about the provinces than some of the opposition parties. It perceived them as an unnecessary additional layer of government and since 1998 leading to Thabo Mbekis ascendance to the presidency, there was a perceptible hardening of attitudes

Currently, the ANC has majority control in most provinces in the country. So why does it continuously toy with whether it should abolish provinces completely, or restructure them into oversight structures to allow municipalities to become central institutions for implementing policy and delivering services to citizens?
in the ANC to the provinces due to their perceived inefficiency, corruption and ineffectiveness in delivering services. In August 2010 the Democratic Alliance (DA) published a discussion document accusing the ANC government of seeking to centralise power. The paper reads that: The drive to centralise power in the ANC-controlled national government has accelerated since President Jacob Zuma took over office. This trend, favoured by his predecessor, Thabo Mbeki, has gained momentum in recent years as a result of two notable processes: renewed efforts to deploy loyal ANC cadres to key positions of power and, secondly, through a torrent of new centralising legislative and policy proposals that seek to take power away from municipalities and provinces and place all state security, revenue distribution and planning functions under the direct control of the national government. (Democratic Alliance, 2010) For a while this debate has taken place within political circles with position papers, discussion documents, round tables and commissions created to look at the question. While the ANC on the one hand claims to seek to optimise efforts to realise good local governance, social equity and efficient use of state resources through this debate, opposition parties on the other side see the ANC as intensifying efforts to centralise power. Within the ANC, there have been somewhat opposing voices around this debate. While some call for the complete abolishment of provinces, others call for a shift in emphasis, with provinces assigned an oversight role over local municipalities. This is of course assuming that provinces have enough resources and capacity to play that oversight role. So, what will it mean if provinces are abolished altogether? Provinces currently serve as the middle layer of leadership within the ruling party. Currently a trend exists where one climbs the ranks from local government level, to province and then to national. This pattern offers a career growth path which is good whether one is a politician or a civil servant. No employee or politician wants to be locked forever in one position, in particular those at municipal level, so province offers that second layer up the ladder. As a result of the career growth pattern outlined above, provinces are able to attract better skilled and capacitated people and generally pay better salaries in comparison to local municipalities. A position at a provincial legislature is considered much more senior than one at local municipal council level and in turn senior provincial and regional party leaders get assigned to provincial legislatures and local branch leaders and independents are assigned to local council level. A move from a position

at provincial level to a position at municipal level is generally considered a demotion. And so, if provinces were to be abolished, and municipalities suddenly have at their disposal the pool of skilled and experienced personnel and politicians that provinces are able to attract, first they would have to match the salary scales that provinces are able to offer, and secondly, the state would have to pay relocation and all other related costs for all employees employed at provincial level. Looking at the current and even long-term developmental needs of South Africa this is an event it can ill-afford. However, looking at recent events in provinces such as the Eastern Cape, where most departments are performing poorly, threatening to lock the entire province in poverty for decades still, and Limpopo where corruption and maladministration have sanctioned most of national government departments intervention, one can agree that drastic steps are necessary to turn the fate of provinces around. To assign the Eastern Cape provincial departments an oversight role over municipalities, for example, raises very little confidence when they have failed time and again to perform their own functions. Whatever the future of provinces may be, what is becoming apparent is that it is time for citizens to get involved in this debate and to push it outside the political boundaries into the public domain. In looking at the future of provinces, it is also becoming clear that it must be looked at in conjunction with the future of local municipalities. While everyone agrees that local government has not delivered on what it was intended to deliver, which propelled the ministry of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta) to develop the turnaround strategy in 2009, it has been noted that the capacity challenges in local municipalities can largely be addressed if provinces were to be abolished. If we are to consider the debate and ponder the question it is useful to also, in the same vein, ask the following questions: - If provincial resources were to be redirected to local government, would this guarantee a local government system that works well? - Do provinces have to be abolished for the government system to operate efficiently, or are there other ways in which provincial and local governments can be restructured to enhance resource efficiency and delivery? The debate on the future of provinces has undoubtedly instigated a potentially powerful and necessary process of revisiting the role of the second sphere of government. But the parameters of this debate have so far been very narrow, failing to deliberate seriously on the nature of provinces, their current form and what structure they should take in future. While it is within these narrow parameters that the potential for improving on the three-sphere system has emerged, discussions around the future of provinces will add little value to governance if it continues to be confined within narrow political interests.

While everyone agrees that local government has not delivered on what it was intended to deliver, which propelled the ministry of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta) to develop the turnaround strategy in 2009, it has been noted that the capacity challenges in local municipalities can largely be addressed if provinces were to be abolished.

References: Athol Trollip, 2010, Centralisation: The ANCs plan to undermine Constitutional Principle. Democratic Alliance August 2010 | De Villiers, B, The Future of Provinces in South Africa, Republic of South Africa, 2008 | Human Science Research Council, 2007, Looking at the future of provinces, HSRC Review Vol 5 - No. 3 | Kitaho C, Rapoo T, 2001, Future of Provinces in South Africa, Centre for Policy Studies, 2001

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Image by blogs.dickinson.edu

LoCaL PoLitiCs and faCtionaLism:

South Africas municipalities are a contested terrain. Divisions within (and between) political parties are overflowing into the life of municipalities, rendering some of them dysfunctional. Factionalism, patronage politics and corruption, maladministration, cadre deployment, political interference and a conflation of the party and the state have all contributed to the erosion of democratic, accountable and effective local government in some municipalities, while it has hindered service delivery provision in others. The King Sabatha Dalindyebo Municipality is one glaring example: its main town, Mthatha, is regularly hit by power blackouts and water shortages, while piles of uncollected rubbish line the towns potholed streets. The municipality is reported to be rife with factionalism, with assassination plots and corruption blamed for the breakdown in services. There are countless other examples across the country. For many citizens, local government is failing to carry out its basic functions the hundreds of service protests that take place across the country each year bear witness to the frustration and dissatisfaction of ordinary citizens with their local officials. Signs that the elected leaders are part of the problem are widespread: from the dissolution of Executive Committees torn apart by struggles for mayoral nominations in the KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) municipalities of uMgungundlovu and Msunduzi; Gautengs Midvaal, subject of a damaging report of conflict of interest in a supposedly model municipality; to a series of murders in KZN, Mpumalanga and North West, which have been linked to power struggles within political parties at the local government level.

LoCaL government as a site of Contestation

> Pamela masiko-kambala

Assessments conducted by the Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta) in 2009 confirmed that political party factionalism is a major contributor to the deterioration of functioning municipal government. More recently, National Treasurys 2011 Local Government Budgets and Expenditure Review directly attributed failures in municipal performance to failures in local political leadership rather than a lack of capacity in municipalities. Municipal governments, by their very nature, are political structures, the stage for various forms of contestation and conflict between people with different interests, ideas, skills and ambition. Yet municipalities are not identical with the affairs of the parties that govern them. They are state entities: public institutions with mandates and tasks to fulfil in the collective interest. It is the challenge of marrying political objectives with state priorities that gives rise to some of the chronic problems in municipal councils. Local

Political contestation in and of itself need not be a concern; it is a positive sign of vibrant local democracy and as such should be nurtured.

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Citizens are not bystanders in the running of their municipalities, and their agency is increasingly being witnessed in the form of stay away voters, the rise of independent candidates, and of course service delivery protests.

administration has the difficult task of governing for all, while simultaneously advancing a political agenda and translating the municipal budget in line with the priorities of the municipalitys majority political party. Any dominant political party in a municipality is bound to use that power to its advantage. What other way of doing so other than ensuring that the municipal budget (drawn by the administration) mirrors or addresses the political objectives of the majority party? Political contestation in and of itself need not be a concern; it is a positive sign of vibrant local democracy and as such should be nurtured. But two prerequisites need to be in place if it is not to prevent good governance. First, it needs robust and resilient institutions that can withstand the potentially eroding effects of contestation. Secondly, it requires neutral, clear and transparent mechanisms to manage contestation and to allow recourse for those who feel that their issues, concerns and complaints are not attended to. Evidence across the country

often conflicting) interests for limited resources and opportunities. This leaves the door open to unhealthy political interference and exploitation, whether for personal, factional or party gain. There are rules guiding municipal administration in the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa (1996), the White Paper on Local Government (1998), the Municipal Structures Act (1998) and the Local Government: Municipal Systems Amendment Act (2011) amongst others. The last of these, designed to remedy some of the failings of local government mentioned above, sets out mechanisms to enable the professionalisation of local government. The Acts intent to prevent undue influence by political officials or political parties over the administrative function of a municipality has been welcomed by many different stakeholders, though many note that there are limitations to the extent to which legislative provisions can address political culture and behaviour.

Some of these are in the realm of role clarification, awareness raising and capacity building, whereas others fall within the domain of political education. The institutional design of local government needs to be assessed, to interrogate whether it does not contribute to or exacerbate negative contestation. For example, there is a concern that the two-tier system of local and district municipalities fuels factionalism at times, as political dynamics between the district and local systems manifests itself in municipalities. Only political parties themselves can govern how politics plays out in state institutions like municipalities. The responsibility lies with parties, especially the ANC, to manage the contestation that comes with contradictions of a growing society. Political parties have to discuss the thin line between politics and administration, as a failure to respect this distinction leads to problems. Parties must make an honest assessment of their practices and find ways of professionalising themselves for the benefit of state institutions and citizens. The legal definition of a municipality includes political structures, professional administration and a third leg - the local communities themselves. Citizens are not bystanders in the running of their municipalities, and their agency is increasingly being witnessed in the form of stay-away voters, the rise of independent candidates, and of course service delivery protests. Alongside elected officials who pursue their political agendas while maintaining a clear sense of their ultimate responsibility to serving the electorate, South Africas municipalities also need strong and vigilant communities who will fight to make real the statement that The people must govern.

The institutional design of local government needs to be assessed, to interrogate whether it does not contribute to or exacerbate negative contestation.
shows that the absence of either (or both) of these is proving to be highly divisive and destabilising. The (local) state appears ill-prepared and illequipped to take on the roles and responsibilities expected of it, including managing competing (and If the past 15 years of local government transformation have taught us anything, it is that there is a limit to what legislation can achieve. There is a need for other interventions and incentives to safeguard the integrity of the administrative and political structures in local government.

References: This opinion piece is extracted from Isandla institutes discussion document titled Local politics and factionalism: Local government as a site of contestation. Visit www.isandla.org.za to view the references used for this article.

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embraCing ComPLexity:
suPPorting an evoLutionary aPProaCh to deveLoPment
> RoNald egliN
The National Planning Commission, chaired by the Minister for National Planning in the Presidents Office, Mr Trevor Manuel, launched a draft National Development Plan1 for South Africa in November 2011. The 400 page plan sets out a national vision for the country in 2030 and proposes broad strategies to achieve this plan. Box 1 provides an extract from the vision.

Image by elblag24.pl

THE NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT PLAN VISION NOW IN 2030 WE LIVE IN A COUNTRY WHICH WE HAVE REMADE.
We have created a home where everybody feels free yet bounded to others; where everyone embraces their full potential. We are proud to be a community that cares. We have received the mixed legacy of inequalities in opportunity and in where we have lived, but we have agreed to change our narrative of conquest, oppression, resistance, and victory. We began to tell a new story of life in a developing democracy. ... Our new story is open ended with temporary destinations, only for new paths to open up once more. It is a story of unfolding learning. Even when we flounder, we remain hopeful. In this story, we always arrive and depart. ...

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The plan outlines strategies that respond to nine key challenges that the commission feels are facing the country as outlined in a Diagnostic Report developed earlier in 2011 (see box 2 challenges and strategies). The two priority challenges identified for the country are too few people work and the standard of education of most black learners is of poor quality.

CHALLENgES AND STRATEgIES

CHALLENgES 1. Too few people work 2. The standard of education for most black learners is of poor quality 3. Infrastructure is poorly located, under maintained and insufficient to foster high growth 4. Spatial patterns exclude the poor from the fruits of development 5. The economy is overly and unsustainably resource intensive 6. A widespread disease burden is complicated by a failing health system 7. Public services are uneven and often of poor quality 8. Corruption is widespread 9. South Africa remains a divided society STRATEgIES 1. Creating jobs and livelihoods 2.Improving education and training 3. Expanding infrastructure 4. Transforming urban and rural spaces 5. Transitioning to a low carbon economy 6. Providing quality health care 7. Building a capable state 8. Fighting corruption and enhancing accountability 9. Transforming society and uniting the nation

The public only has until 11 of March 2012 to comment on the plan. The National Planning commission will then resubmit the plan to Cabinet in late May or early June 2012. Popular four page versions of the plan are available at www. npconline.co.za/pebble.asp?relid=25 The National Development Plan is premised on the understanding that, as a country, having a national plan that we all agree with and work towards we will solve the identified key challenges. The intention is that all sectors and spheres of government will buy into the plan (or a modified version of it) and incorporate the recommendations emerging from the plan into their existing programmes and/ or establish new programmes where appropriate. The whole process assumes we can plan our way out of trouble. It is motivated in this article that this is a flawed assumption, and that a more evolutionary approach to socio-economic development has a better chance of addressing our challenges and achieving our vision.

A complicated system is a static and predictable system. Doing one thing will cause another thing to happen. Building a house is a complicated system. You can predict that if you construct the foundations in a certain way, and then build the floor, walls and roof in that order, you will build a house that will stay up. Sending a person to the moon is also a complicated system, where using a certain amount of fuel and pointing the rocket in the correct direction will result in the rocket reaching the moon.

a specific outcome. You cannot predict that by implementing the recommendations outlined in the National Development Plan you will achieve the vision. There are just too many role-players and variables in the system each influencing and being influenced by the other and therefore the outcome of the system. For example, the skills base of the country might be improved but this may lead to people emigrating as better work opportunities are found elsewhere rather than using these skills for the countrys development.

You cannot predict that by implementing the recommendations outlined in the National Development Plan you will achieve the vision. There are just too many role-players and variables in the system each influencing and being influenced by each other and therefore the outcome of the system.

COMPLExITY AND EVOLUTION

In order to understand why it is unlikely that the National Development Plan on its own will achieve its objectives we need to understand the difference between complicated and complex systems.

Complex systems, on the other hand, are dynamic and unpredictable systems. There are many elements in the system each interacting with and influencing the other. A sports match is an example of a complex system, in that you cannot predict, with the people starting the game, who will win the game. The elements (people) in the system all affect each other as the game progresses. The socio-economic development of a country is also a complex system. You cannot predict, based on the starting conditions, that if you implement certain plans that this will result in achieving

This unpredictability should not imply we are unable to do anything. One needs to embrace complexity when working with socio-economic development. Evolutionary processes are found in complex systems. Biological evolution is when an organism reproduces, and as a result of the process of reproduction variations occur in the offspring. Through the process of natural selection, as the organisms interact with their environment, those offspring that are more compatible with the environment have a better chance of further reproducing and transferring their slightly adapted traits onto future generations.

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The development of new products in the market can also be seen as a process of evolution. Companies try out new and innovative products. Consumers evaluate and choose which products they like. Consumers provide feedback to producers by buying the better products. Over time those products that better suit the needs of the consumers become the predominant products in the market. This evolutionary approach can be summarised as a four step process: replication (of organisms in biology, and products in the market); innovation (or variation in biology, and product innovation in the market); evaluation (or natural selection in biology, and consumer preferences in the market); and feedback (or further reproduction in biology, and product demand and purchasing patterns in the market).

THE EVOLUTIONARY APPROACH TO SOCIO-ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

In order to understand how these evolutionary steps can support the socioeconomic development of a country, lets conceptualise development as the implementation of a number of different projects over time. These projects come from all sectors of society from housing, agriculture, business, transport, education, health, micro finance, etc. The conventional way of organising projects is one where a government department develops a series of programmes. These programmes disburse funding to projects according to agreed rules for what the project must deliver and the process that needs to be followed in implementing the project. Projects have a start and an end. They have a specific outcome and are implemented in a specific series of steps. The National Development Plan is an example of this conventional development approach where the recommendations coming out of the development plan are turned into a series of projects. The plan already makes suggestions for a number of projects across all sectors, such as broadening and expanding public works programmes, setting up business incubators, procuring energy from renewables and neighbouring country hydropower plants, creating regional and national water and waste water utilities, increasing investment in irrigation infrastructure in identified areas, investing in reliable and affordable public transport, piloting a nutrition programme for pregnant women, increasing teacher training, building new universities, broadening coverage of antiretroviral treatment to all HIV-positive people, rationalising existing social benefit payment systems, implementing a formalised graduate recruitment programme for government positions, centralising the awarding of large tenders and tenders of long duration, and promoting a bill of responsibilities.

Projects that are replicated are based on projects where there is evidence of the success of these projects and not just on the flavour of the month of some politicians views.

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The evolutionary approach to socio-economic development would organise projects differently. Using the four stages of evolution identified above, projects get replicated (reproduced) as role-players - government, for-profit companies, non-profit organisations, communities etc - complete previous projects and start new projects following the same or similar processes that were used to complete previous projects. Innovation, or variation within projects comes as different people/ groups try things differently in their projects. They may innovate by producing different products (e.g. build different types of houses, establish different types of clinics) or they may implement projects following different processes (e.g. organising the way that labour is managed in the building of houses or how decisions are made about what the houses will look like; or use different people in different ways in running a clinic).

world wide web. The feedback process of selecting what projects have been successful and replicating them in subsequent rounds of evolution is a key aspect of the evolutionary approach. Owen Barder in his blog2 sums it up nicely, We should not try to design a better world. We should make better feedback loops. Evaluation and learning are key elements of this feedback process. Evaluation includes evaluation by experts and evaluation by the people themselves. Evaluation occurs at different stages of a project: before, immediately after, and a few years after a project. This ongoing evaluation is important as often projects may lead to short term success but be a long term failure, or they may not be seen as very spectacular at the start but be a long term winner. There are two aspects to good evaluations. The first

these projects and not just on the flavour of the month of some politicians views. The second aspect of good evaluations is that it is preferable that the people who are most affected and/ or benefit from a project are the ones that are involved in its evaluation. Perception surveys etc can be conducted to hear the views of the community directly. One should not only rely on, for example, the view of some external expert. In conventional approaches to development the feedback loops are often very long. By the time the plans have been developed, the original conditions leading to the plans developed may have changed. With longer feedback loops the impact of bad policies and plans are more pronounced as they are in place for longer. The feedback loops of the National Development Plan are likely to be fairly long. Any problems with the implementation of projects emerging from the National Development Plan are likely only to be picked up many years into the future. The evolutionary approach has a much shorter feedback loop. The feedback process also relies strongly on good processes for sharing experiences from previous project implementers with subsequent project implementers. One way to do this is to put all information on projects out in the open allowing all role-players to access it. The evolutionary approach accepts mistakes as part of the process. This poses challenges for innovation in the socio-economic context, because, unlike electronic products for example, you cannot throw away people when a mistake happens. Systems need to be put in place to deal with mistakes. For example projects could be required to contribute towards a contingency or insurancelike fund, that project implementers can access to correct mistakes that occur on projects that lead to negative outcomes for the community. There will probably also be the need for an ethics committee of some kind to be established to evaluate projects prior to them being approved against the ethical implications of experimenting with real people. A strong element of community participation in the planning of projects will also contribute towards mitigating mistakes. It is important that the people who are likely to be affected by any mistakes are involved in making the decision to proceed with a project. A community group will likely be more sympathetic to the decision makers of a failed project if they themselves were the decision makers rather than some outside specialist.

Any problems with the implementation of projects emerging from the National Development Plan are likely only to be picked up many years into the future.
These different projects all operate in different socioeconomic contexts. Some are in inner city areas while others are in lower income rural areas. Those projects that succeed in a particular context will then be picked up and repeated, copied and replicated in subsequent rounds of project implementation. Projects are evaluated to determine if they address the needs of people. Feedback occurs when the lessons from previous projects are fed back into the plans for subsequent projects. Visions are still useful in the evolutionary approach. One does not assume, in the evolutionary approach, that one knows at the start of the process what series of projects will result in the achievement of the vision being worked towards. The vision provides a beacon to work towards, and it helps role-players evaluate which projects are helping them move towards their vision. As Confucius says, if you dont know where youre going, youll probably end up somewhere else. However, visions are not fixed. Through the evolutionary approach one might find different and more appropriate visions emerging. For example, who could have envisioned 20 years ago the type of society we live in today with cell phones and the is the concept of randomised trials. In the medical sector for example, this involves two groups of patients that have been randomly identified and given a new drug that is being tested, with one group given the real drug and the other given a placebo (substitute), with the groups not knowing if they got the placebo or not. In this way its easier to attribute any significant improvement in the health of those that received the drug to the drug itself and not some other external factor. In the socio-economic development environment randomised trials may involve, for example, certain groups of children, identified from different schools randomly, being taught using one teaching method while others are taught using another teaching method. It is then easier to attribute any improvement in learning to one teaching method or another. In the housing development process, one group of households could form part of one type of Peoples Housing Process, while another group forms part of a more conventional developer driven approach. Any improvement in the living environment created by either approach, as determined by the role-players themselves, can then be attributed to one housing delivery method or the other. In this way one is able to minimise subjective evaluations of different approaches. Projects that are replicated are based on projects where there is evidence of the success of

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gOVERNMENT SUPPORT FOR EVOLUTIONARY DEVELOPMENT

There are a number of things that government can do to embrace and support evolutionary approaches to development. At a more general level, government needs to develop a culture where people value the importance of innovation and experimentation. This requires the development and implementation of an awareness-raising and education programme where the evolutionary and innovative approach is explained and highlighted. Commitment to an innovative approach needs to come from the highest level in government. Regular pronouncements from the state president, for instance, encouraging innovation in government and society, will go a long way to promoting the concept of a more evolutionary approach to development. More specifically, each government department, each province and municipality, and each parastatal should be mandated to set up an innovation and learning unit to encourage and support innovation within government (and society as a whole). These units can start by developing a list of issues they want to address in innovative ways. Each innovation unit within government needs to be accompanied by an innovation budget. This does not have to be started with new funding but rather can be created by redirecting a small percentage of existing programme funds towards the innovation budget. Innovation units can then call for proposals thatinnovatively address the identified (and other) issues. Innovation does not always follow clear paths so often innovation occurs in areas where you least expect it. For this reason innovation units need to be open to unsolicited proposals for innovative projects on topics that may not have been identified by government. An example of an innovation programme would be one where the Human Settlements Department establishes a fund where NGOs and others are able to access resources to test out new approacheson, for example, the provision of make it easier for such projects to be able to side step many of the rules and regulations that would make many of these innovative products and processes difficult, if not impossible, to establish using more conventional products and processes. Within each government department there will then be basically two types of projects that get implemented: the majority of projects will be those that form part of existing conventional government programmes; but there will also be space for a handful of more innovative programmes that are testing the waters for new and innovative project approaches. Over time the successful projects from the innovation unit will get incorporated into the conventional programme. In this way, future policy emerges from experience and not through the ideas of some people sitting in an office removed from the reality of the ground. There will be a number of challenges to establishing such an innovation approach within government. As a start, government does not like unpredictability. Government bureaucracy is geared towards standardised programmes and procedures so that it is much easier to account for how it spends taxpayers money. Government does not like to accept failure as it is difficult to explain to the electorate. Innovation and experimentation by its nature often leads to failure: failures are necessary if we are to learn what is successful.

...each government department, each province and municipality, and each parastatal should be mandated to set up an innovation and learning unit to encourage and support innovation within government (and society as a whole).
tenure to people living in informal settlements, the involvement of the community in the layout of plots in new site and service settlements, creating new dry sanitation toilet systems, and building new houses using modified indigenous building materials. The innovation programme needs to

ConClusion
As a country we need to promote a far more experimental and do it society. The section on improving education training and innovation (chapter 9) within the National Development Plan talks about the importance of innovation in the context of technology and science, but this concept of innovation, as part of the evolutionary process of replication, innovation, selection and feedback needs to permeate all sectors and aspects of the National Development Plan. We need to develop a more evidence-based development intervention culture where decisions on how government can intervene are not only made according to what communities want, the will of politicians, or the latest development fad, but are more regularly being made based on what has been proven to work in the past. The evolutionary development concept needs to be incorporated into the National Development Plan as a key component of the plan, and we also need to immediately start to implement the evolutionary development strategy in parallel to the conventional programmatic approach of government. We must not stop developing visions and goals and systematically planning and working towards achieving these goals; but an exclusive reliance on such an approach, which the National Development Plan tends to rely on, will not, on its own, result in the achievement of our vision. Innovation and experimentation with clear learning loops are equally, if not more important than conventional planning processes. The general attribute of African countries is not poverty, stagnation, or exploitation - rather it is their receipt of foreign aid. Mkandawire et. al. (1999) remarked that, one of the notable conditions.

References: Bar-Yam, Yaneer, Making Things Work: Solving Complex Problems in a Complex World, NECSI Knowledge Press, 2004 | Harford, Tim, Adapt: Why Success Always Starts with Failure, Little Brown, 2011 | Marshall, Stephen, Cities, Design and Evolution, Routledge, 2009 | Wilson David Sloan, The Neighborhood Project: Using Evolution to improve my City, One Block at a Time, Little Brown and Company, 2011 Notes:
1

http://www.npconline.co.za/ | 2www.Owen.org/blog/4018

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the history of foreign aid dePendenCy:

ChaLLenges for afriCa
> tiNashe NyatoRo

Financial reliance of the third world countries on developed nations is a deep-seated characteristic of the current world economic order. This is not caused by too little resource transfers to the poor nations, rather, it is the current global market setup where transfer of resources takes place within a context that leads all the time to increasing inequality between nations. A quick glance on aid inflows to developing countries shows a growth in size since the 1970s, however, the returns from aid are still over the horizon. In such a milieu, is it possible for developing countries to delink from the international financial institutions and at what cost? Who is in charge of African development?
This article is based on the premise that the availability or non-availability of aid creates a double tragedy. Firstly, foreign aid in general creates dependence on technology, industries, culture, capital, and ideologies from the metropolitan/ centre countries. This dependence generates a special umbilical cord that ties African economies to the metropolitan, thereby distorting their traditional economies (Babu, 1981). Secondly, foreign aid represents an important source of finance; it supplements low savings, narrow export earnings, and thin tax bases (Njeru, 2003). Though a number of policy attachments covering both economic and political areas have accompanied aid to African countries, it has largely played a key role in human and capital development (ibid). Hence, reducing aid to African countries would spark off a political backlash and will exacerbate state incapacity, and social hardships that Structural Adjustment Programmes (SAPs) brought in the 1990s. Despite the fact that aid has had some successes in African countries, the loans and grants made by the developed countries, as well as multilateral institutions are not based on African countries real needs, nor on any performance criteria, but primarily on the interests of the donors. In other words, this article argues that, directly or indirectly, aid dependence obstructs or limits the possibility for change and autonomous development in the developing countries.

Economic growth as advocated by the modernisation theorists entail more than capital injection, as aid reduces the capacity of developing countries to service their debts.

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DEFININg AID
Overseas Development Assistance (ODA) and Overseas Development Finance (ODF) are two major concepts that are used by different donor agencies to refer to aid. This article uses these two concepts, aid and foreign assistance, interchangeably. Chakravarti (2005) defined aid as all official concessional flows from bilateral and multilateral agencies, whether in the form of a loan, or grant that can be considered developmental in intent. Krueger (1986) also defined aid as capital inflows into the country, this includes, among others, foreign direct investments. Food aid and humanitarian assistance that does not fall within the definition of ODA has been excluded from the purview of this article. Aid can be multilateral or bilateral. Multilateral aid is when assistance is given by an organisation consisting of more than one state such as the World Bank, International Monetary Fund (IMF) or assistance provided by development agencies of the United Nations (UN) such as the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and World Food Programme (WFP), as well as concessional assistance provided by limited membership multilaterally established by the European Community (Krueger & Ruttan, 1989). On the other hand, bilateral aid is given by individual donor countries (such as Britain and China) directly to another state. There are also NonGovernmental Organisations (NGOs) such as World Vision, Care Africa and Oxfam that give aid. Of late, development practitioners have been advocating channelling aid through NGOs, rather than governments as NGOs have earned the reputation of getting aid to the poorest people (Madeley, 1991). However, a number of NGOs have become agents of regime change and this has created animosity between them and some African nations.

PRO AID THEORY: CAPITAL DIFFUSION

The proponents of the modernisation theory presume that the development of third world countries will happen through the diffusion or trickling down of capital, technology, and organisation methods from modern capitalist areas to developing countries. This theory views underdevelopment as an original condition of backwardness and proposes that, for developing countries to draw level with the developed countries, there is need for greater penetration of modern economic principles and institutions (De Beers et. al., 2000). This postulation given by the modernisation theorists is that underdevelopment is primarily a result of the lack of capital and technological expertise, thus underdevelopment is looked upon as a kind of deficiency disease which can be taken care of through injections of missing ingredients with foreign aid being one of these missing ingredients. In other words, aid represents supplementary capital and is essential for speeding up economic development. Given these suppositions, it is evident that modernisation theory places strong weight on the need for intervention in promoting economic development and on the thought that more capital leads to greater development.
Image by wallyg

ANTI-AID PARADIgM: DEPENDENCY THEORY

Dependency exits when one party relies on another without the reliance being reciprocal. Baldwin (1980) defined dependence in terms of reliance on others, lack of self-sustenance and self-sufficiency. He also defined it in terms of the benefits that would be costly for one to forego. Thus, most developing countries found themselves in this tragic situation. McKinlay (1977) further elaborated that in such a relationship, one party may choose to terminate the relationship with little or no costs while the other can do so only at considerable costs. Given the above suppositions, the reliant state, therefore, operates in a subordinate or dependent position. More so as Moon (1983) puts it, the dominant party establishes a dependent relationship because it generates a degree of control or influence, and the main use of aid is the potential to control. Caporaso (1978) alluded to the fact that this control can be used for a variety of reasons dictated by the dominant state. Given the above definition of dependence, one can argue that the provision of aid creates a relationship of unreciprocated reliance. McKinlay (1977) elaborated that the donor can terminate the provision of aid with little or no costs. The recipient on the other hand incurs considerable costs when aid is terminated. Aid provides the donor with a potential of control over the recipient. This potential to control is derived from three factors: Firstly, the excess demand for aid places the donor in an advantageous bargaining position. The donors can, therefore, dictate to some extent a number of conditionalities under which aid is to be supplied. Secondly, the nature of aid provides the donor with the means for intervention in the recipient country for instance with programme aid, it entails some intervention in the recipients fiscal, monetary and development policies while project aid entails future reliance of the recipient on the donor for the servicing and maintenance of the particular project (ibid). Thirdly, repayment can create another situation where the donor is in an advantageous bargaining position. Given these three factors one discovers that many developing countries are experiencing difficulty in repaying their debts, and the problem is becoming more acute. This article, therefore, argues that economic growth as advocated by the modernisation theorists entails more than capital injection, as aid reduces the capacity of developing countries to service their debts.

Aid dependence has reached a point where it is counterproductive and is doing nothing to generate processes that would obviate the need for it.

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AID DEPENDENCY AND STATEHOOD IN AFRICA

The general attribute of African countries is not poverty, stagnation, or exploitation - rather it is their receipt of foreign aid. Mkandawire et. al. (1999) remarked that, one of the notable conditions of African countries is their high dependence of economic performance on the external environment. Most African countries failed to restructure the postcolonial state; rather they have preserved the legacy of colonialism, which is the concentration of export earnings on one or few primary commodities that are vulnerable to exogenous terms of trade and demand conditions. Derouen and Heo (2004) noted that the more dependent a state is on foreign aid, the more responsive it is likely to be to external pressure. The reason according to the above authors is that, it is sufficient that the smaller state is aware that the Big Brother is watching. Babu (1981) stated that most African countries tremble in horror if they are threatened with the withdrawal of aid. Interestingly, this intimidation has been used as a weapon with which to coerce African countries into accommodating unpalatable policies (ibid). Amazingly, some African leaders frankly assert that, they cannot challenge imperialism because as realists and pragmatists, they must safeguard their national interest of which continued access to foreign aid is one. They also accept the premise that, no foreign aid no development. In this regard, they view aid as a right. Furthermore, the role of the African state in development is questionable in such a milieu of dependence. Bradshaw and Tshandu (1990) stated that because of foreign aid, the African state is weak, repressive, feeble, fragile, dependent, and collapsing. McGowan et. al. (1988) categorically stated that African countries have little decision latitude in their attempts to devise policies appropriate to overcoming underdevelopment. In other words, African countries always display compliant political behaviour towards the donor countries. Bradshaw and Tshandu (1990) posit that economic dependence erodes state capacity to intervene in local affairs, as foreign lenders manipulate the African countries governments. Therefore, aid should be seen as an instrument, not a gift as it plays a key role in maintaining and even expanding developed countries influence on African countries. Goldsmith (2001) viewed aid as a narcotic; fostering addictive behaviour among states that receive it. States are thought to exhibit the symptoms of dependence that provides a short run benefit from aid, but increases the need for external support that does lasting damage to the country. By feeding this addiction, the aid donors have supposedly weakened the resolve of African states to act on behalf of their citizens (ibid).

Image by vorige.nrc.nl

Foreign aid is a tool of statecraft used by the government providing it to encourage or reward politically desirable behaviour on the part of the government receiving it.
Mkandawire et. al. (1999) blasted aid dependence as it has given foreign institutions so much power on African national affairs and the capacity to impose Structural Adjustment Programmes reflects this. In other words, the IMF and World Bank have seized this opportunity to declare financial and monetary stabilisation as preconditions for economic growth. The IMF and World Bank policies emphasise the importance of rolling back the role of the state and minimising any restriction on the free play of the market forces (Pender, 2001). These policies of the IMF and World Bank are highly politicised as they stand in direct opposition to those policies of many economies, which remained organised around a state-led model. Thus in practice, stabilisation programmes are given priority while development programmes are shelved (Alschuler, 1976). Pender (2001) further elaborated that because African countries are weak, they are forced to abandon protectionism to foster infant industries, and instead to establish primary commodity exports, particularly agricultural as the centrepiece of economic strategy. Therefore, one should view stable exchange rates, devaluation, reduced inflation, and trade liberalisation as instrumental for the repayment of debts to the aid donors, for the repatriation of profits by foreign investors and the introduction of exports to the centre. Aid dependence has reached a point where it is counterproductive and is doing nothing to generate processes that would obviate the need for it. The aid recipient relationship in Africa has developed into one that neither generates mutual respect nor harnesses the capacities of all those involved. Instead, it has generated the dependency syndrome, cynicism, and aid fatigue. Cardoso (1972) sums it up by saying dependency is a national derangement or functional incompleteness of a national economy.

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THE SUSPENSION OF FOREIgN AID

One of the major challenges confronting Africa is the suspension of aid through: temporary stoppage of deliveries; withholding new aid commitments; reducing the amounts of aid committed or delivered in comparison to previous amounts; and purposive delay by the donor community in making a decision, one way or the other, about future aid to the country. Suspension of donor aid is done on four grounds: formal breach of international law (as determined by the security council); failure to comply with formal contract (Structural Adjustment Programme Agreement, debt contract); imputed breach of international law (United Nations Charter, human rights covenants); and bilateral dispute or because of donor self-interest (Archer, 2005). African countries that fail to adhere to the statutes of the international financial institutions are showered with sanctions (targeted/smart/full economic sanctions) through the withdrawal of aid. However, withholding aid defeats the current idea of development cooperation, which is focusing on ownership and partnership. Ownership refers to the extent to which a country can pursue internal and external policies independently of incentives provided by multilateral lenders (Drazen, 2002). The logic behind this premise is to encourage equal partnership based on a clear division of roles and responsibilities. Thus, partnership lays the foundation for a realistic dialogue regarding what donors can contribute and what the recipient country can take responsibility for. The above conception of development partnership between the developing and developed countries remains a contentious issue. Abrahamsen (2004) refuted the above notion of partnership and argued that it perpetuates the dominance of the developed countries over African countries. The model of partnership would see developing countries in charge of their own development, which is an ideal situation development practitioners would want to see. However, Abrahamsen posits that partnerships are a rhetorical innovation, a re-branding of old style practices and policies. In other words, partnerships are used to conceal the continued exercise of power by international agencies (ibid). A review of the Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSP) and New Partnership for Africas Development (NEPAD) demonstrates that the idea of partnership is a fallacy. The protagonists of these models argue that these two development strategies present a degree of partnership between the African and developed countries. Countries that are highly indebted are required to develop PRSP for debt cancellation. However, the IMF and World Bank still have the power to veto a countrys PRSP placing the notion of ownership and , partnership under serious question (Abrahamsen, 2004). Similar concerns arise on NEPAD, which is championed to be Africas own development plan, a break-away from SAPs, yet it has explicit commitments to neo-liberal norms and values. In overall, NEPAD perpetuates dependency on foreign assistance. It is also a neo-colonial project through which developed countries want not only to promote their strategic and national security interests, but also to ensure perpetuation of Africas dependent development under globalisation. Moon (1983) noted that in most cases the powerful countries secure the cooperation of the weaker states using the reward and punishment behaviour. In other words, the behaviour of the recipient country is viewed as a partial payment in exchange for the maintenance of benefits they derive from their economic ties to the donor country. Therefore, to employ sanctions by withdrawing aid poses more dilemmas, both in terms of affecting development and marginalised groups and by contradicting the principle of partnership and ownership.

CONCLUDINg REMARkS
In concluding this debate on foreign aid, it is important to note that the extensive flow of foreign aid to African countries has not yet been reciprocated by growth and development. In fact, the advent of the 21st century has not changed the situation of many African countries with regard to dependence on aid. It appears now that most African countries have become more dependent on aid than ever before. In fact, these African countries have become addicted to foreign aid. The net effect of aid to African countries is that it has eroded selfconfidence, creativity, and the pride of citizens and leaders. Moreover, aid dependence has eroded and undermined the moral authority of African leaders to govern (Ishengoma, 2002:9). Foreign aid has done more damage to African countries. It has led to a situation where African countries have failed to set their own pace and direction of development, free of external interference, since development plans for developing countries are drawn thousands of miles away in the corridors of the IMF and World Bank.
References:

This article further noted that developed countries Realising the failure of aid to African countries, this view aid as something to be bartered with. Thus, article recommends the following: the West exchanges aid for political or ideological support or uses aid to influence strategic decisions There is need to repudiate all forms of foreign aid, and strengthening allies. excluding disaster relief assistance. The postcolonial state is designed to serve foreign The African state has no autonomy to control interests thus the state should be recaptured and and direct national capital and even increase its restructured to serve African interests. bargaining position with respect to foreign capital. In the light of this, postcolonial African development For the above two recommendations to take has been thwarted by external pressure acting place, there is the need for an exit strategy from against internal values and traditions. In short, aid aid dependence that requires a drastic move both has led to the re-colonisation of Africa through the in the mindset and in the development strategy of strings attached to it. countries dependent on aid. There is a need for a deeper and direct involvement of people in their Foreign aid is a tool of statecraft used by the own development. This requires a radical and government providing it to encourage or reward fundamental restructuring of the institutional aid politically desirable behaviour on the part of the architecture at the global level. government receiving it. It is an instrument of coercion and a tool for the exercise of power with This article has been adapted from the book: The little relevance to the lives of the recipients. More so, Impact of Aid Dependence on Social Development: the pattern of bilateral aid distribution is explained the case of Zimbabwe. The book can be ordered by donor interests rather than the recipient interests. online from www.amazon.ca or www.ebay.co.uk

References for this article can be viewed on the Afesis-corplan website: www.afesis.org.za

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Image by John W Roskilly

soCiaL housing in neLson mandeLa metro

the Way forWard
> aNthoNy Ngcezula

Social Housing is meant to address structural, economic, social and spatial dysfunctionalities thereby contributing to governments vision of economically empowered, non-racial and integrated society living in sustainable human settlement.
The Social Housing Policy defines social housing as a rental or cooperative housing option for low income persons at a level of scale and built from which requires institutionalised management and which is provided by accredited social housing institutions or in accredited social housing projects in designated restructuring zones (Tokin, 2008:10). The Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality (NMBM) hereafter referred to as the Metro is heralded as one of the Metropolitan municipalities that have done very well in the delivery of RDP houses. However, there are Metro residents who neither qualify for a home loan nor a housing subsidy. They are called the gap market. Most of them live on the periphery of the city of Port Elizabeth (PE) and towns of Uitenhage and Despatch. They have to travel long distances to work, thus losing an opportunity to prepare children for school as they sometimes leave for work way before the school children wake up. In winter, they sometimes leave home while its still dark and are at the mercy of criminals. Moreover their earnings are depleted by the cost of transport to and from work. Some Metro gap market residents from previously disadvantaged backgrounds live close to their work places. However, they are tenants in rental accommodation where they pay rent at commercial rates. This commercial rate does not take into account the salary which they earn. As a result, some of them struggle to pay the rent and are forced to sacrifice some basic necessities to pay for rent for fear of eviction. Clearly, this gap markets housing needs should be catered for under Social Housing in the NMBM. One of the priorities of the South African government post-1994 is the integration of South African cities. This integration is supposed to ensure that the urban poor have access to the city and enjoy benefits brought about by being close to the economic hubs and centres (Department of Housing, 2005). Social Housing is meant to address structural, economic, social and spatial dysfunctionalities thereby contributing to governments vision of an economically empowered, non-racial and integrated society living in sustainable human settlement. Social Housing in the Metro has taken off very slowly when compared with the progress made by the Buffalo City Metropolitan Municipality (BCMM). This is as a result of a number of problems.

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i. Lack of local accredited social housing organisation to deliver social housing projects. Hence one of the biggest social housing projects, Park Towers, is owned and managed by an East London-based social housing association. ii. The stakeholders of social housing in the metro work in isolation. There is no common vision and integrated plan at any given time. iii. The social housing policy of the Nelson Mandela Metro is not communicated effectively to all the stakeholders and residents of the Metro. iv. Lack of political will to accommodate low-income households on well located land. v. Lack of cooperation between the Eastern Cape provincial government and local NMBM government with respect to social housing. The World Charter on the Right to the City (as tabled at the World Urban Forum in Barcelona in 2004) states that cities must comply with their social function, including the equitable right to the citys economic resources and culture, while also ensuring ecological and cultural sensitivity (Royston, 2009:259). Social Housing projects cater for households earning between roughly R3, 500 and R8, 500 per month as they must be able to pay rent and

There is a perception that Housing Cooperatives have failed.

rates. Not many of Metro households are in this income band, some earn below R3, 500. This means that Social Housing projects in the Metro might not easily cater for the very poor. Thus, the majority of the Metros poor faces exclusion from the city and will remain far from areas which offer major economic opportunities. Most of the Metros inner city buildings remain unoccupied and unused for years. They belong to private landlords who are happy to bolster their property portfolios. These buildings are ideal for social housing purposes as they are close to taxi ranks, hospitals, schools, municipal offices and shopping centres. However, private property owners price these buildings very expensively preventing any attempt by local government to facilitate their acquisition for social housing projects. Moreover, well located land is being used up for commercial developments such as shopping malls and town house complexes. Another new but disturbing trend is the use of most inner city buildings for student accommodation. These buildings can serve a better purpose of social housing as they are far from Nelson

Mandela Metropolitan University (NMMU) where most of the students who live in them are studying. One student accommodation, namely Laboria, which is next to all public amenities has provided a bus to shuttle students to and from NMMU. While this serves the need to house students for the university, it could well serve a much more pressing social housing need had the Metro been willing to facilitate its sale for such a purpose. The Social Housing effort of the Metro needs to be intensified. Local Social Housing activists and social entrepreneurs must establish locallybased Social Housing Associations which are accredited by Social Housing Regulatory Authority (SHRA). These housing associations should receive the necessary support from the Eastern Cape government, NMBM and NGOs. There is a perception that Housing Cooperatives have failed. However, with better capacity-building, housing cooperatives can deliver few medium-density and well-located social housing units. SHRA needs to give housing cooperatives a re-look as the social housing solution lies not only in delivering rental units at scale. The resuscitation of the Port Elizabeth Social and Rental Housing Forum is a step in the right direction. It is important that government officials, municipal officials, social housing practitioners, architects, town planners, academics, landlords, property owners, NGOs and potential social housing beneficiaries have a platform where social housing issues can be discussed and best practice shared. The forum also presents NMBM with an opportunity to communicate its social housing policy and outline its social housing strategy to a relevant social housing broad community. It is important for the NMBM to communicate its social housing policy to its residents more effectively. Tenant education and responsible ratepayment can be communicated using community organisations and NGOs. The Constitution of the Republic of South Africa (Act no. 108 of 1996) obliges the state to improve living and working conditions on an equitable and sustainable basis, so that everyone will have equitable shelter that is healthy, safe, secure, accessible, affordable, and that includes basic services, facilities and amenities and will enjoy freedom from discrimination in housing and legal security of tenure (Public Service Commission, 2003).

There needs to be political will in the Nelson Mandela Bay Metro to accommodate low-income households on well located land and prevent the urban sprawl which is costing the municipality millions of rands on infrastructure development.
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There needs to be political will in the Metro to accommodate low-income households on well located land and prevent the urban sprawl which is costing the municipality millions of rands in infrastructure development. The Nelson Mandela Bay Metro and the Housing Development Agency (HDA) need to make a concerted effort to find well located land for social housing in Port Elizabeth, Uitenhage and Despatch. For some proposed new social housing projects in Port Elizabeth, delays result because of the objections from ratepayers in the suburb next to which the social housing project is to take place. Property owners who are resistant to an integrated city use the National Environment Management Act to block social housing projects and perpetuate the exclusion of the urban poor from the city. This is in the form of NOT IN MY BACKYARD campaigns by the rich, who see having property nearby whose tenants are from a lower income levels as an eye-sore which might lead to the value of their properties dropping. The Charter on the Rights to the City commits cities to comply to equality and non-discrimination, requiring commitment of resources to and implementation and monitoring of public policies on equality on the basis of age, gender, sexual orientation, language, religion, opinion, racial or ethnic origin, income level, citizenship or migratory situation (Royston, 2009:259). The Nelson Mandela Bay Metro Council needs to ensure that the mandate of the government and the

Constitution of the country take precedence over rate-payers concerns. The National Environmental Management Act must not be considered in isolation. It must be interpreted with the ambit of the Constitution and Housing Policy of South Africa. There must be inter-governmental cooperation. Thus the Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolitan Municipality and the Eastern Cape Provincial government need to work together to cut the backlog of social housing units. Currently there is only one fully-functional social housing accommodation in Port Elizabeth, namely, Park Towers which has 136 units. Imizi Housing Association is in the process of constructing social housing accommodation of 347 units at Walmer Link in Walmer, Port Elizabeth. However, according to the manager of this project, it has taken them over 10 years to start the project. Problems which they encountered along the way pertain to availability of land, a complex funding model and difficulty in accessing top-up funding. There is also a social housing project on the pipeline in Uitenhage. Provincial and local government need to come up with a strategy of converting hostel upgrades and some available (but unused) municipal buildings to Community Residential Units (CRUs). According to one social housing municipal official, NMBM faces a problem in the area of CRUs. The residents who stay in hostels such as Kwa-Ndokwenza in Kwa-Zakhele have not been paying rent and/ or rates for years. When proposals are presented to them for the renovation and upgrading of the hostel and them paying

rent thereafter, the residents refuse to let NMBM renovate and upgrade the hostels. They choose to stay in the derelict hostels as they are and continue paying nothing rather than having them upgraded and paying rent. This presents a dilemma for NMBM officials as CRUs form part of Social Housing. Thus, if residents are refusing CRUs then they are excluding themselves from social housing. Some applicants to Park Towers and Walmer Links will not qualify on the basis that they cannot afford rent there. These residents are willing and can manage to pay rentals of between R400 and R800. These are the residents of NMBM who could benefit from CRUs, provided they are built or made available in and around the inner city. Surplus municipal land and buildings can be utilised for this purpose. A database of those applicants failing to qualify from the Park Towers and Walmer Links could be used as a needs analysis tool. The intensification of the delivery of social housing in the Nelson Mandela Bay Metro is essential to the reversal of the racial, economic, social and spatial dysfunctionalities of the Metro. Local Housing associations like Imizi and Port Elizabeth Inner City must be given a more meaningful agency role in assisting NMBM in implementing their social housing policy and strategy. NGOs like Ubutyebi Trust can act as a facilitator in the partnership between the Metro and the Local Social Housing Associations.

References:

Tonkin, Anzabeth. Sustainable medium density housing. DAG: 2008 | Public Service Commission. 2003 | Department of Housing. 2005 | Royston, Lauren: Making towns and cities work for people. Cordaid: 2009

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agrarianisation or de-agrarianisation in the eastern CaPe?

> cliffoRd mabheNa (Phd)

the imPLiCations for job Creation in the agriCuLturaL seCtor

INTRODUCTION
Agriculture development was widely supported by the homeland administrations (Ciskei and Transkei) in an endevour to promote food security at the household level as well as within its territories. Willowvale in the Transkei was once the hub of cropping, and large quantities of maize were produced in this area. The homeland administration used to provide tractors to till the land and inputs such as seed were also distributed among the communal farmers. The marketing of maize was organised in such a way that local stores or general dealers acted as market places in which local farmers deposited their surplus for onward transmission to various markets in Butterworth and beyond. Working on the fields was viewed by the locals as part and parcel of their livelihood, it was not regarded as employment per se. Family members who contributed to the farming activities were not paid a wage or salary but benefitted in terms of food from crops such as maize (umqgushu), and non-food items that were purchased from cash generated from surplus maize sold. In other words working on the household fields was not a job as such but an obligation of every family member. The post independent South Africa has also promoted agricultural development in the former marginalised areas and even embarked on different agricultural projects spearheaded by sector departments. For instance the Department of Social Development has supported a large number of agriculture and agriculture related projects throughout the province under the banner; Food Security Projects. Organisations such as Ruliv has supported to a great extent wool production in the Willowvale area by providing grade rams and shearing sheds. However research done by the Fort Hare Institute of Social and Economic Research, (CLaRA, 2007; UNDP Human Development Index, 2008; 2009) found that a majority of households had stopped farming the fields and where they Vol18 No1

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were still farming, cultivated in the gardens. There is however no clear evidence on the decline of livestock numbers as Anslie argued that by 2005, the livestock numbers were the same as those of the 1930s. There are a number of reasons why de-agrarianisation is happening in the rural Eastern

Cape, chief among them is the flight of human capital to the urban centres, leaving the old, aged and the sick in rural areas. The flight of human capital to the towns and cities has been compounded by the lack of employment opportunities and incomegenerating related activities in rural areas. Farming

has not been engrained in the way of life of the youth of today and has been viewed as a job of elders and the uneducated. Numerous grants given to rural households have also slowed down agricultural activity in communal areas.

AgRARIANISATION DRIVE AND LAND REFORM

The challenge for the state has been to redistribute land to the previously marginalised groups by embarking on a nationwide land reform programme. The land reform programme, according to the then Department of Agriculture and Land Reform, has three key elements, namely land restitution, redistribution and tenure reform. Land restitution it is argued has seen some tracks of land restored to the original occupiers. However in many instances the original occupiers and their descendants settled for cash rather than the land. Bank and Minkley, 2005, Bank and Mabhena, 2011, argue that most of the restituted land in the Eastern Cape still belongs to the former commercial farmers since communities settled for cash rather than the land itself. Furthermore the purchasing of the land for both restitution and redistribution has been constrained nationally by the willing seller, willing buyer principle. Tenure reform has also been constrained by failure by the state and its apparatus to fully consult the communal people in the drafting and enactment of the Communal Lands Right Act (CLaRA, 2004) which was repealed by the constitutional court in 2010 (Bank and Mabhena, 2010). In his recent overview of land reform in South Africa, Lahiff (2008) suggests that the main beneficiaries of land and agricultural policy since democracy have been commercial farmers and entrepreneurs. He states that: a critical challenge for the land reform programme thus remains the development of strategies that effectively target groups such as the landless, the unemployed and farm workers, that concentrate resources in areas of the greatest need and promote solutions that meet the needs of poor and landless people (2008: 40). Du Toit (2009) argues that policy instruments have been marked by an increasing tendency to de-emphasis support for subsistence farming and to emphasise the importance of commercial farmer support (2009: 20). He notes that there has been a shift from earlier more poverty-focused initiatives, which subsidised the assistance of land acquisition by poor and landless people, to ones which required that applicants have their own savings and resources. Du Toit laments that: billions of rands will be spent on establishing a small group of medium scale black farmers while the legacy of rural landlessness, de-agrarianisation and politically charged histories will remain untouched (2009: 20).

Cooperatives have been widely supported in the agriculture sector, and with sound planning, management, including constant monitoring and evaluation they are a workable model that can create rural employment.
Faced with the challenges of land reform, the state had to support agriculture in the previous tribal areas by encouraging cooperative development. Cooperatives have been widely supported in the agriculture sector, and with sound planning, management, including constant monitoring and evaluation, they are a workable model that can create rural employment. Rich (2011), an Eastern Cape analyst, comments that; cooperatives are a fantastic model for communal development; however, in the Eastern Cape context we lack crucial ingredients: a strong cooperative culture, stronger work ethic, cooperative leadership that is willing to endure personal sacrifice as opposed to personal enrichment. The argument here is that despite the cooperative education the beneficiaries receive from various sector departments, cooperatives have collapsed in large numbers. For instance successful irrigation schemes such as Ncora and Shilow are good examples where the lack of a strong cooperative culture and lack of a strong leadership contributed to the collapse of these schemes. Furthermore

28 marCh 2012 Earth hour

Earth Hour takes place on Saturday, 26 March, between 20h30 and 21h30. By switching off all your lights for an hour, youre making a statement about the threat of global warming and a commitment to a lowcarbon lifestyle. Eskom reported that South Africans who participated in Earth Hour in 2009 saved about 400 MW of electricity, 400 tons of carbon dioxide, 224 tons of coal and about 576 000 l of water. Steve Lennon, MD Corporate Services and Eskom climate change champion, said the South African energy saving was slightly higher in 2010 with 420 MW, which translates to about 4 million 100W bulbs or 6.7 million 60W bulbs being switched off. This shows a concerted effort by approximately one million households.

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cooperatives are faced with other challenges including lack of critical capacity and the notion of get rich quickly before all is gone. This mentality requires a change in the mindset of cooperators and this applies also to Food Security projects. The Eastern Cape Today, 2011:3 acknowledges that among other things, most cooperatives (420 out of 500) have failed to secure additional funding from the state and other agencies because of a failure to meet the set criteria for qualification.

base for households and the province, the role of technocrats and politicians in securing markets for the produce, and the communitys role in ensuring sustainability of the project. How then can agriculture-based employment be generated if entities like cooperatives are not yielding the desired results? Is there an alternative model that can be adopted to generate employment from agriculture? Who should lead the employment creation drive in rural Eastern Cape? Can agriculture employment be generated outside the established commercial farming system? Do rural people of the province really need agricultural employment? These are some of the questions that we should ask ourselves as development practitioners bearing in mind attitudinal complexities of beneficiaries. One issue worth noting in the agrarianisation of the rural areas is that people tend to view crop farming as the backbone of agriculture. They tend to neglect livestock production as one of the agrarian livelihood pillars of the rural communities in the Eastern Cape. There is a belief that greening the rural landscape is a sign of increased agricultural production. I argue that the livestock economy in this province is as important if not more important than crop farming.

Development in rural areas was found to be hampered by the mismanagement of development funds and by intense conflict and mistrust between traditional leaders and local authorities.
The agrarian drive is visible in the province, for instance recently the MEC for Social Development commissioned the R1.4-million Siyazama Mgudu Food Security project which basically concentrates on maize, wheat and vegetable production. The emphasis to the community in general and cooperative members in particular was the importance of agricultural land as a livelihood

DE-AgRARIANISATION PROBLEMATIC AND JOB CREATION

The CLaRA study (CLaRA, 2007) showed that de-agrarianisation had reached alarming levels in the Eastern Cape with rural households intensely dependent on social grants for survival. Development in rural areas was found to be hampered by the mismanagement of development funds and by intense conflict and mistrust between traditional leaders and local authorities. One of the most shocking findings of the 2007 survey was the very low level of participation of households on communal land in agricultural production. Fewer than two percent of households in these areas said that they made living from farming (Bank and Mabhena, 2011). There are complex debates about how, when and why de-agrarianisation occurred in the Eastern Cape, beginning with discussions of the 1913 Land Act and its impact on rural communities. But it is generally agreed that the 1950s were watershed years and that the rural revolts against Bantu authorities and betterment planning in the region represented final gestures of resistance from the collapsing peasantry to inevitable proletarianisation (Mbeki, 1964; Mayer, 1980; Delius, 1996; Beinart, 2008). What happened after this is usually depicted as a steady and progressive decline into poverty and cash dependence for rural households in the former Transkei and Ciskei (Simkins, 1981). What is less well understood is how rapidly this decline occurred during the homeland era and how much the absence of a rural development strategy after apartheid has aggravated the situation. There are conflicting reports on how different aspects of the agrarian system have responded to change. Ainslie (2005), for example, argues that livestock numbers in the communal areas of the Eastern Cape are today at similar levels to those of the 1930s and that they have remained much more constant than the literature indicates, suggesting that the linear decline thesis might need to be revisited, at least to accommodate drought and variations in climate. On the crop production side, Andrews and Fox (2004) argue that the critical shift from field production to reliance on household gardens coincided with the growth of migrant labour in the apartheid years. But McAllister (2001) points out that the abandonment of fields did not necessary mean reduced homestead output as gardens were now expanded and used more intensively than fields. It seems possible to conclude that, while less maize from the homestead sector reached the market during the homeland era, the output of households might not have fallen quite as much as analysts predicted. In trying to maintain rural production, tribal authorities and local agricultural officers played a critical role in securing access to resources such as seed, dip, tractors and even fertilisers for homesteads, through their networks into the homeland state and its agricultural services (Gibbs, 2010). Access to this sort of support depended on the quality of local level social relations, as well as the ability of chiefs and local officials to extract favours within local patronage networks. By ignoring rural areas and the rurality of its rural subjects, the ANC has greatly accelerated deagrarianisation in the former Transkei and other areas over the past 15 years, perhaps doing more to undermine homestead production than 40 years of gruelling apartheid planning had done. Through the removal of agricultural extension services, the disempowerment of tribal authorities as development agencies, and relegation of the rural poor to a nonagrarian constituency, the Transkei countryside has been urbanised in ways that are plain to see. RDPstyle houses are popping up everywhere as the rural economy flounders and households shift their focus from production to a low level consumption lifestyle based on grants and on free land and services. One issue worth noting in trying to address job creation in these areas is that the demand for land hunger is low because agriculture is viewed by most people as a social economy rather than a commercial economy. The women and youth have migrated to urban centres in search of industrial jobs and the likelihood of engaging in commercial agriculture is not certain in the current situation. The number of rural farm workers has drastically decreased in recent years as a result of commercial farmers shifting away from labour intensive farming to nonintensive ventures like game ranching and tourism. This has lead to farmers retrenching a lot of workers. On most of these farms the casualisation of labour has become the norm and the chances of most of these workers becoming a burden to the states fiscus in future years is no secret. In other ways the commercial farming sector is also contributing to deagrarianisation as more and more land is being used for non-agricultural purposes.

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So is the commercialisation of agriculture a vehicle with which to create jobs in rural areas in contemporary Eastern Cape or do other alternatives need to be developed? If they are developed which are those? Cooperatives and other group related activities might salvage the situation if properly planned and managed. For instance, a 2009 study

gardens in this area contribute about 61% of the household income. One conclusion drawn from this study is that if off-farm activities/employment contributes 39% of rural household income in these areas there is a possibility that employment in the agricultural sector can be realised if proper job creation plans are drawn in Local Municipalities.

By ignoring rural areas and the rurality of its rural subjects, the ANC has greatly accelerated de-agrarianisation in the former Transkei and other areas over the past fifteen years, perhaps doing more to undermine homestead production than forty years of gruelling apartheid planning had done.
conducted by the author and researchers from the Water Research Council (WRC), revealed that agriculture can contribute to both subsistence and economic empowerment of organised agricultural groups. The Chata irrigation scheme and household Planning at Local Municipality level needs to be coordinated and integrated in practice. The fact that municipalities and sector departments draw their own development plans encourages competition rather than cooperation in development planning let

alone service delivery. For instance the Department of Agriculture might be business-minded in the use of land, whereas the Department of Land Affairs might be social-minded, meaning that its quest is to provide land for social purposes (eg. village settlements and addressing apartheid imbalances). The Department of Agriculture on the other hand might require land for commercial purposes and this creates confusion and conflict among sector technocrats resulting in failure to deliver to beneficiaries. Therefore its important for Municipal Infrastructure Grants and other grants that they should incorporate agricultural based projects that would create employment even at local level rather than placing more emphasis on urban based infrastructural projects alone. Agricultural development is vital in a province like the Eastern Cape because of its rich soil and not forgetting its long history of contributing to the economy of the country through the export of wool and other livestock-related products over the years.

CONCLUSION
There are a lot of questions to be asked on whether the state really views agriculture as an engine of economic growth. The fact that a lot of land in the communal areas lies fallow suggests that a majority of rural dwellers have forsaken agriculture as a means of livelihood. One argument that is often heard in the Eastern Cape is that agriculture production has declined because state support in the form of pensions and grants has made rural people lazy. This argument was recently articulated by Peter Mayende, former Land Claims Commissioner for the Eastern Cape. He argued that the current system of handouts was unacceptable and unsustainable, and that the only feasible way forward was to create thousands of small-scale farmers who would receive regular and consistent support from the government to establish farming enterprises. In his analysis, Du Toit (2009) suggests that one of the reasons for the declining levels of self-reliance and agrarian production in the rural areas relates to the subversive role played by large supermarkets and retail giants that distribute cheap food to rural consumers and disincentivise local production. Du Toit (2009) argues that rural areas are over-exposed to national chain stores and supermarkets, which have the tendency to undermine and suppress all forms of local economic development. He suggests that in some ways metropolitan centres are both too close and too far: too far because of the distance from job markets and too close because of the omnipresence of the giants of South Africas corporate retail sector, which crowd out local entrepreneurship from all but the least profitable sectors (2009: 9). Another common explanation for the steady decline in rural production is that out-migration has diminished the capacity of households to produce crops. This has led to most able-bodied people moving to urban centres, leaving rural areas with the old and the sick. Planning Commissioner in 2011 does not clearly put more emphasis on job creation based on agriculture is an indication that agriculture has not been given the prominence it deserves in the policy framework. It is important for the state to revitalise the extension services in these rural areas to educate the youth in particular to understand that employment can be generated from farming as it can be generated in industries. One chief argued that, the youth need to be taught about agriculture and farming and to involve themselves in such projects as food security projects rather than spend their time drinking beer.

The fact that the new National Development Plan 2030 pronounced by the Planning Commissioner in 2011 does not clearly put more emphasis on job creation based on agriculture is an indication that agriculture has not been given the prominence it deserves in the policy framework.

However there is also the likelihood that deagrarianisation has been accelerated by the failure of the new dispensation to provide sound policies on agricultural development. The fact that the new National Development Plan 2030 pronounced by the

This is an important point because industries alone cannot absorb all the out-of-school youth and hence the need to re-think agriculture as a vehicle for job creation in the Eastern Cape.

References: Bank L, etal (ed) 2006 The Rapid Assessment of Service Delivery and Socio-economic Trends in the Eastern Cape. Eastern Cape Government | Bank, L & Minkley, G 2005 Going Nowhere Slowly: Land Livelihoods and Rural Development in the Eastern Cape, Social Dynamics, 12, 1-20. | Clara 2007 | Du Toit, A. 2009 Adverse Incorporation and Agrarian Policy in South Africa, unpublished conference paper. | ECSECC (Eastern Cape Socio-Economic Consultative Council), 2000, Rural Development Framework. Draft document. | McAllister, P. 2001. Building the Homestead: Agriculture, Labour and Beer in South Africas Transkei. Aldershot: Ashgate Press. | Mabhena, C and Bank, l (2011): Bring back Kaiser Matanzima? Communal land, traditional leaders and politics of nostalgia, in Daniel, J Naidoo, P Pillay, D and Southall, R, New South African Review, New Paths, Old Compromises. Johannesburg. Wits Press. | The Eastern Cape Today, 23 October, 2011 | Mbeki. G, 1964; The peasant Revolt, Penguin Library. Middlessex | Mayer,P. 1980; The origins of Two Rural Ideologies; in P P, Mayer (ed). Black villages in an Industrial society. Cape Town, Oxford Press | Delius, 1996; A lion Among the cattle: Reconstruction and Resistence in the Northern Transvaal, Johannesburg, Ravan. | Beinart, 2008: . 2008. Official and living customary law: Dilemmas of description and recognition. In Land, Power and Custom: Controversies generated by the Communal Land Rights Act, ed. A. Claasens and B. Cousins. Cape Town: UCT Press | Bank and Minkley, 2005, Going Nowhere Slowly: Land Livelihoods and Rural Development in the Eastern Cape, Social Dynamics, 12, 1-20. | UNDP Human Development Index, 2008; 2009 Fhiser Research Publications. University of Fort Hare | Lahiff (2008). Land Reform in South Africa: A status Report | Rich (2011), in The Eastern Cape Today, 23 October 2011 | Ainslie (2005), Farming cattle, cultivating Relationships: Cattle ownership and Cultural Politics in Peddie district Eastern Cape, Social Dynamics Vol. 31. No. 1 | Andrews and Fox (2004): Betterment in Nquba Village, Mahasana, ward 17 Willowvale, Transkei. Imacts of land claims, an unpublished paper written for the Eastern Cape NGO Coalition, August 2004 | (Gibbs, 2010). 2010. From popular resistance to populist politics in the Transkei.In Popular Politics and Resistance Movements in South Africa, ed. W. Beinart and M. Dawson. Johannesburg: Wits University Press. 2Water Research Council (WRC) and FHISER Report (2009). Unpublished University Report.

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addressing food inseCurity through the househoLd food seCurity Programme

> aRtwell chiVhiNge

INTRODUCTION
The Household Food Security model addresses the challenge being faced by many households to feeding themselves, and ensures that each household either produces its own food or is able to buy food. Food Security is a system of meeting long term food needs. It is not only about producing food, but includes preserving and storing food in the case of drought. It is not enough to associate food security with food production, but to also include the livestock, land, water, forests, grazing land and all other natural and physical resources. The Constitution of South Africa (section 27) states that every citizen has a right to access sufficient food and water. The Integrated Food Security Strategy (IFSS) of South Africa (2002) defines food security as the physical, social and economic access by all households at all times to adequate, safe and nutritious food and clean water to meet their dietary and food preferences for a healthy and productive life. Bonti-Ankomah (2001) explains that these definitions imply that either there will be an ability by an individual to be self-sufficient in food production through

Participation of households in food security programmes immensely contributes to addressing poverty, unemployment, under-nutrition, and other socio-economic challenges being faced in South Africa.
own production, or there will be accessibility to markets and ability to purchase food items. Poverty and food insecurity in South Africa dates back to the 19th and the 20th century when black people lost their farming and entrepreneurial activities and resorted to work in the mines and large farms. Colonialism and apartheid barred agrarian activities, and poverty and food insecurity increased because black people no longer had the means to produce enough of their own food (IFSS 2002). Today, there are many households that are still food insecure, i.e. food is beyond the reach of many unemployed people and poverty stricken households even though the government suggests otherwise. Over time, different programmes have been implemented by the Government of South Africa to address food insecurity. Some of the programmes resulted in huge changes in peoples lives, whilst other programmes disempowered people and left them poor and bitter. The school feeding scheme, elderly pensions, and child grants are some of the more successful projects. The land reform programme and the massive food production schemes, on the other hand, did not work well. The household food security model focuses on small scale and subsistence farming and other means of ensuring food security and does not focus on commercial agriculture. This article is from the viewpoint that grassroots development is the basis for sustainable and lasting development. Participation of households in food security programmes immensely contributes to addressing poverty, unemployment, under-nutrition, and other socio-economic challenges being faced in South Africa. Furthermore, if these challenges are addressed, there will be less of a burden on the government with respect to the payment of grants if households are food secure. Vol18 No1

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A focus on the household ensures a bottom-up approach to development where households participate in contributing to food security. The positive impact on the household will in turn change the extent of food security at community, ward, local municipality, district and provincial levels. If all households are targeted with the aim of ensuring access to, increasing the availability, and improving the affordability of food, this could have a multiplier effect where communities are either able to produce their own food or they can afford to buy food. Such a situation will instil independence, self-reliance and sustainable livelihoods and living patterns. This is important because the household is viewed as the entry point to education and the development of skills,

values and attitudes. It is also the foundation of social, economic and spiritual development with an ability and potential to provide for the needs of household members. The household is the best and most sustainable target if a lasting impact in peoples lives is to be made. If all the households are reached, eventually the whole community would have been transformed. The Household Food Security Model addresses the challenges of hunger and food insecure households who are also battling with nutrient and micro nutrient deficiencies. Households need support and skills development to exit the dependency and survivalist phase of food insecurity and the model aims to build these

critical skills. The model encourages policy makers and development practitioners to have a different perspective on development instead of focusing on commercial food initiatives and support mechanisms. This creates an opportunity to change mindsets and attitudes of influential people or gate-keepers to one where they recognise that smallholder farmers and households should be the starting point to ensure food security. A focus on national food security, which is mostly guided by commercial indicators of food production, does not necessary lead to household food security. It is surprising to note that South Africa is seen as food secure yet at the household level many people are food insecure.

STATE OF FOOD SECURITY IN SOUTH AFRICA

According to Altman, Hart and Jacobs (2009), the experience of hunger in South Africa has fallen, but under-nutrition remains a serious problem. This is the situation in both urban and rural areas. systems, inappropriate farmer support services and lack of purchasing power. Poor households spend most of their money buying food and are affected by any increases in food prices. The Eastern Cape is a poverty stricken Province, yet it has a lot of potential that needs to be utilised. A lot needs to be done in order to transform households so that they can afford to have balanced, healthy and nutritious meals. This is true for urban areas too. Frayne, Battersby-Lannard, Finchman and Hayson (2009) pointed that there are high levels of urban food insecurity worldwide. Therefore, the issue of food insecurity is no longer one for the rural poor only. It is important to note that there is a lot of rural to urban migration and that urban areas also need as much attention as the rural areas on food security. A massive urban farming movement, strategy or policy is needed in order to address the food insecurity in cities and towns since their expansion and growth rates are high. Different strategies, policies and models to promote food security have been applied in South Africa during the pre- and post-independence of South Africa. In 1994, the Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP) prioritised food security as a way of addressing the plight of the disadvantaged, especially black South Africans. This saw the government spending more money on school feeding schemes, child support grants, free health services, pension funds, land reform and farmer settlement programmes. In particular, the government has supported the Mass Food Production Programme through the Department of Agriculture where communities provide land to the government and agree for the government to buy farming inputs and pay for their labour. After harvesting, the communities receive the agreed percentage of the produce and the government takes its share. In most cases, the households are left with very little food that does not last a year. The major challenges for households that would want to work on their land and produce their own food without any strings attached are: the lack of support through provision of inputs to households and small-scale farmers, limited credit schemes by banks to small-scale farmers, little government recognition of the contribution made by smallscale farmers, and the non-focus on households in policies and strategies on food security. The article proposes the Household Food Security Programme as an effective and sustainable way in ensuring food security in the Eastern Cape Province. Well-capacitated households form the basis for sustainable development and food security.

A focus on national food security, which is mostly guided by commercial indicators of food production, does not necessary lead to household food security.
Like many other countries, especially in Africa, South Africa is battling with food insecurity, ill health, poverty, unemployment and crime. According to Statistics South Africa, in its July 2011 mid-year population estimates, South Africas population is at 50.59 million people; Eastern Cape Province has 6,829,958 people (13.5% of the total population). Furthermore, the 2002 IFSS South Africa reports that households in the Eastern Cape were the poorest in the country with 70% or almost one million of the 1.33 million households spending less than R1, 000 per month and about 100,000 households spending more than R3, 500 per month on food. Poverty in the Eastern Cape is exacerbated by inadequate safety nets, weak disaster management

21 MARCH: NATIONAL HUMAN RIgHTS DAY

National Human Rights Day is celebrated on the 21st of March every year. The United Nations (UN) has also declared the day as an International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. For many South Africans, the day will always remain Sharpeville Day, a commemoration of the 21 March 1960 Sharpeville massacre, when the police mowed down 69 unarmed people and injured 180 others who refused to carry the hated dompas identity document that was meant only for indigenous Africans. The day, sometimes also referred to as Heroes Day, was a watershed in the countrys liberation struggle, hence its inclusion in South Africas post-apartheid holiday calendar. Human Rights Day serves to ensure that the people of South Africa are aware of their human rights and to ensure that abuses that occurred during the apartheid period never again occur.

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Poor households spend most of their money buying food and are affected by any increases in food prices.

THE HOUSEHOLD FOOD SECURITY PROgRAMME (HFSP)

The HFSP is a model that capacitates households in rural and urban communities with the necessary skills and knowledge to respond proactively to meet their food, nutrition and livelihood needs. It meets this objective through the formal training of a selected number of students who then impart their knowledge at grassroots level to various households experiencing food insecurity. Households who participate in this programme are mobilised to take action to break the cycle and yoke of poverty and food insecurity. The Household Food Security Programme is being piloted in all the districts and metros of Eastern Cape Province. It was initiated by the South African Institute of Distance Education (SAIDE) that partnered with University of South Africa (Unisa) in order to offer the programme as an accredited course. The programme was introduced to the Eastern Cape NGO Coalition, which in turn also invited its member organisations to be involved in designing, planning and analysing how the model could be rolled out in the Eastern Cape. Writers, facilitators and mobilisers were recruited and selected through NGOs and CBOs in Eastern Cape. The communities participated by identifying and selecting possible students and by sharing and encouraging other community members to participate in areas such as mobilisation and providing venues for contact sessions. The households work with a student volunteer and benefit by acquiring information, skills and knowledge. Each student works with five households in his or her community during the course of the programme until the programme is finished after 12 months. The student works with the household on six modules of the programme, which include: Introduction to Household Food Security Introduction to Methods of Working with Households Sustainable Natural Resources Use Food Behaviour and Nutrition Optimising Household Food Production Food Resources Management The strength of the Household Food Security Programme lies in the fact that it targets the household instead of the wider community, and the students can decide to continue working within their communities in other ways such as volunteering, looking for a job, continuing to promote food security, or furthering their studies in the related field. Everything that the student learns is transferred to the household. The programme works closely with community members, non-governmental organisations and government departments on the training, monitoring and evaluation of the model. Each year, a new set of students or participants is recruited and the more participants that are recruited, the greater the number of households that will be reached. Impact of the Household Food Security Programme The programme has helped change the students attitudes, mindsets and improved their livelihoods. The programme offers career path opportunities for the community members who want to further their understanding, skills and knowledge on food security. The fact that the model realises the importance of community involvement and targets households, it is bound to be sustainable because the starting point of food security is for each household to be able to produce its own food and meet its health, nutritional and economic needs. By making a difference in each household, the whole communitys livelihood will improve thereby reducing dependency on social grants. The households that have participated in the model thus far have managed to enjoy agriculture, produce their own food and are able to sell the surplus and earn extra income. Students and the promoters are replicating what they learnt in the programme. In Kwelera and Mooiplaas, for example, the students have adopted schools that they are working with on food security issues. Some students have started some voluntary groups on household food security. Households are now using their land more than they used to and there is considerable improvement in their nutrition. A new batch of skilled people is being groomed in the communities who can mentor, train and support farming initiatives at household and community level. They are bridging the gap between households and the relevant government departments. Vol18 No1

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There are however a few challenges in implementing Programme it is recommended that: Household and community participation the programme, and rolling it out at scale: The model should be promoted in both urban and should be emphasised in the household food rural areas. security programme to ensure ownership and The programme needs more funding in order to Government needs to provide material and sustainability. yield more results. technical support on food production, food An integrated approach to planning and The Eastern Cape is widely spread out and it is preservation, marketing, etc. to households that implementing the household food security difficult and expensive to monitor and support benefit from the land re-distribution programme. programme should be emphasised so that there implementation of the model as compared to other Government should invest in long-term household are many role-players such as government more compact provinces. food security programmes similar to the one departments, local government and civil society There is limited access to land for most of the outlined in this article and see it as an opportunity organisations involved. people and there are no title deeds for much of the for skills development, employment creation and Opportunities for further work and training should land that is being used. community mobilisation initiatives. be availed to the graduates who complete the Government needs to increase income security programme whilst also continuing work with the As a way forward for the Household Food Security through social grants and other mechanisms. households that the students were working with.

CONCLUSION
There are many opportunities that the household food security programme presents to transform the food security situation in South Africa, both in urban and rural areas. The model needs to be carefully looked at and replicated in different parts of the province, and in other provinces using the experiences of the Eastern Capes pilot programme. The challenges posed should also be addressed and an analysis and comparison with other models needs to be considered in order to make the model more effective. Focusing on improving the household instead of the wider community is the foundation for development if we are to make a lasting impact in development. The Household Food Security Programme is one of the models that the Government and other development practitioners should take into consideration and be able to replicate.

Image by Openform

References: Altman, M, Hart, T, Jacobs, P 2009. Food Security in South Africa. Pretoria: Human Science Research Council. | Bonti Ankomah, S, 2001. Addressing Food Security in South Africa. Pretoria: The National Institute for Economic Policy Department of Agriculture. 2002. The Integrated Food Strategy for South Africa. Pretoria: Department of Agriculture. | Frayne, B, Battersby - Lennard, J, Fincham, R, Haysom, G, 2009. Urban Food Security in South Africa: Case Study of Cape Town, Msunduzi and Johannesburg. Development Planning Division Working Paper Series No. 15, DBSA: Midrand. | Leahy, TS, 2009. Permaculture Strategy for the South African Villages. New South Wales: PI Productions. | Statistics South Africa. 2011. Mid Year Population Estimates. Pretoria: Statistics South Africa

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Creative industries and ruraL deveLoPment

> claRah daPiRa

INTRODUCTION
Despite the increasing pace of urbanisation in the developing countries, the majority of the worlds poorest people are still located in the rural areas especially in Africa. In these settings the challenge of rural poverty is enormous and lack of income generating and employment opportunities is a central feature of poverty. According to the World Bank (2000) the rural poor are characterised by limited access to land, credit and technology, economic infrastructure as well as limited access to government services such as health and education. Thus, the rural people tend to suffer from poor health, have higher illiteracy rates and earn less than city dwellers. The most vulnerable groups include women, children, the youth and the elderly who in most cases are small landholders, and are landless. Faced by this rural development impasse many governments, research entities and other key actors in the field of development are experimenting with various strategies or policies to increase income generating and employment opportunities for the rural people. Among other strategies, development practitioners and governments are experimenting with the concept of the creative economy or creative industries. At the heart of these creative industries is an attempt to mobilise and encourage communities to exploit their national diverse cultural aspects such as indigenous knowledge, creativity and natural/ man-made resources, to create employment opportunities through the production of distinctive goods and services that might be sold locally and externally (Unesco, 2005). The contribution of creative industries in some countries has been immense in terms of employment creation, poverty alleviation and broader national economic development (Sagnia, 2005; Lewis, 1990). It is against such as background that this article seeks to look at countries like Thailand that have managed to reduce poverty among rural communities through the promotion of creative industries. Drawing on the success stories and experiences of Thailand, key lessons are drawn for the emerging creative industries in southern Africa, especially South Africa.

At the heart of these creative industries is an attempt to mobilise and encourage communities to exploit their national diverse cultural aspects such as indigenous knowledge, creativity and natural/manmade resources, to create employment opportunities through the production of distinctive goods and services that might be sold locally and externally (UNESCO, 2005).

THE HISTORICAL OVERVIEW OF THE CONCEPT CREATIVE INDUSTRIES

Wien (2004) asserts that the term creative industries is relatively new in socio-economic development discourse. But where does the concept creative industries originate from? One school of thought argues that the construct creative industries has its roots in cultural industries. Some studies (Wien, 2004; UNESCO, 2005; Sagnia, 2005) have concluded that there are obvious connections and continuities between creative industries and cultural industries. These authors also agree that cultural industries are not something new to most parts of the world. For instance, Unesco publications reveal that cultural industries have long existed in Asia and in Europe citing the existence of lacquer work which originated from Asia in the 17th century and was popularised in Europe. Ceramic work from Japan and China, the tapestry industry in Florence, the Persian carpets, and the Java batik are cited as long existing industries based on handicraft work. In Africa, the same publications reveal about the textile craft sector which is informed by iconography (art), and influenced by modern techniques to create what today are being called creative industries. Nevertheless, various studies concur that in the development discourse cultural industries were not recognised as an alternative avenue that could be used to foster socio-economic development and were marginalised. The work of OConnor (2007) posits that the general Vol18 No1

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prevailing perception was that culture was regarded as a major obstacle to economic development citing the contradiction between the values and vision of the two concepts. This rendered the two concepts as incompatible. Industry (capitalism) was/is animated by the principle of unlimited accumulation at the expense of all other values. On the other hand, art or culture has always been interested in oneness of individuals and sharing-ubuntu. This was viewed as an obstacle to the principle of accumulation (capitalism). Grosfilley (2003) reckons that, subjecting art to external economic rationality was believed to undermine the inherent autonomy

of the work of art. Consequently the role of cultural industries in development was never acknowledged. Also, no concerted efforts were made in terms of supporting cultural initiatives to become fully-fledged strategies that had the potential to alleviate poverty. However, this perception soon changed with the dawn of the new media boom that emerged during the early-mid 1990s. Wien (2004) suggests that the new media boom did not only introduce a new range of activities that could be classified as cultural industries nor could these industries be classified under conventional categories. The insufficiency of the concept cultural industries to entail new range of activities such as multi-media and

software industries gave rise to the concept of creative industries. The concept emerged in Australia in the early 1990s, but was given much wider exposure by policy makers in the United Kingdom in the late 1990s when the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) set up its Creative Industries Unit and Task Force (Cunningham, 2003). Cunningham suggests that the DCMS moved the understanding of the concept of creativity a long way from its common association with activities having a strong artistic component, to any activity producing symbolic products with a heavy reliance on intellectual property and for a wide market.

DEFINITION OF CREATIVE INDUSTRIES

Unesco (2005) defines creative industries as those industries which produce tangible or intangible artistic and creative output, and which have a potential for income generation the creation, production and commercialisation of creative contents which are intangible and are cultural in nature. Cultural industries generally include printing, publishing and multi-media, primarily constituted of micro, small and medium enterprises; agglomeration is a feature of production, especially in sectors that are dependent

through the exploitation of cultural assets and the production of knowledge-based goods and services (both traditional and contemporary). The DCMS (2003) defines creative industries as those industries which have their origin in individual creativity, skill and talent and which have the potential of wealth and job creation through the generation and exploitation of intellectual property. The Global Alliance for Cultural Diversity (2005) defines cultural industries as those industries that combine

audio-visual, phonographic and cinematographic productions as well as crafts and design. According to Unesco, 13 sub-sectors can be identified within the concept of creative industries, which are the following: advertising, art and antiques, architecture, crafts, design, designer fashion, film, interactive leisure, music, performing arts, publishing, television and radio. The broad characteristics of creative industries include the following:

on key infrastructure such as film studios, theatres and museums; largely unorganised both in terms of organisations and workforces; dependent on direct sales and service provision to the general public and tourists rather than royalties; and the value chain of the creative industries begins with the creators and artists who typically are freelancers and individuals rather than firms (Unesco, 2005).

CREATIVE INDUSTRIES AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT: THE CASE OF THAILAND

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In Thailand, creative industries have been promoted as an alternative conduit to address the challenge of rural poverty. The approach to creative industries that is being used by Thailand has its origins in Japan. This approach to rural development was initiated by a Japanese governor of Oita in 1979. The main tenet of this approach is mobilising and encouraging rural villages to concentrate on producing one single distinctive product that the community is good at and then identify the potential market both local and abroad. The underlying objective of this approach was exploiting the comparative advantage (culture, creativity, natural resources, etc.) of each locality to create employment and diversify sources of rural incomes in Japan. The initiative later turned to a powerful movement which later came to be known as One Village One Product (OVOP) in Japan. The OVOP contributed significantly in terms of fostering broader local economic development in Japan. As a result, this approach to rural development is being replicated by many Asian countries such as Cambodia, Malaysia, Thailand and also African countries such as Malawi and Ethiopia.

community has created and preserved for a long time (Unesco, 2005). According to a report that was published by the Kenan Institute of Asia, in 2009 farmers in Thailand are emerging as successful small scale entrepreneurs through the exploitation of local indigenous knowledge and skills to produce unique handicrafts. These small scale rural creative industries are reported to have contributed significantly to the economy of Thailand. For instance, it is reported that creative industries have contributed approximately 9.53% of total Gross Domestic Product (GDP) with the value added amounting to 2.86% of GDP Revenue from the . jewellery industry was reported to be accounting for 4.73% of GDP In 2008, 875,500 workers (or . 2.42% of Thailands workforce) were reported to be employed in the selected creative industries. The same report further reveals that through the OTOP programme the farmers in Thailand have managed to diversify their sources of income and are contributing to the growth of the Thai economy.

welfare of people through diversifying their sources of income and contributing positively to broad national development. Cunningham (2003) succinctly asserts that the critical ingredient behind the successful story of Thailands creative industries lies in the role that is being played by the state. The state, it is argued has recognised the critical role played by creative industries in terms of its contribution to social (promotion of social cohesion), economic (employment creation, income generation) and cultural development. This realisation led to the enactment of various pieces of legislation and building of institutions (agencies and new ministries) that are all meant to provide different forms of support to creative industries. For example, the OTOP Task Force of the Department of Export Promotion (DEP) which was established by the Ministry of Commerce is reported to be responsible for developing marketing strategies that include organising exhibitions of OTOP products at Trade Fairs, internal and external, as well as participating in in-store promotions. The Interior Ministrys Department of Community Development is tasked with working directly with the rural communities to fine-tune their products whilst the Department of Industrial Promotion runs capacity building programmes that include training, assessment of product development, and issues of quality control. Through the DEPs Product Development Centre, teams of designer experts are recruited to work with villagers to create marketable designs and packages for their products. The prime minister has also initiated the establishment of a website www.thaitambon. com as a non-profit venture to assist in creating a comprehensive database of Thai villages and also to market OTOP products on the website (Kenan Institute of Asia, 2009).

The underlying objective of this approach was exploiting the comparative advantage (culture, creativity, natural resources, etc.) of each locality to create employment and diversify sources of rural incomes...

In Thailand the customised version of the One The quality of their products are reported to have Village One Product is the concept of One greatly improved with most of the products being Tambon/district One Product (OTOP) which was rated as 5-star products and at present these established in 2001. The OTOP programme products can be easily sold anywhere in the global provides opportunities and integrated support to market. It is reported that the OTOP programme rural people whose main activity until recently has also ensured a transformation of participating was limited to farming. Drawing its inspiration communities that is from: from Japans successful OVOP scheme, Thailands OTOP project encourages rural communities amateurs to professional administrators of to produce and market unique products and business; The Thai government is reported to have realised handicrafts from locally available materials utilising from make-shift stalls in open markets to elegant the crucial role of developmental research to local wisdom and skills handed down from shelves in hundreds of leading supermarkets and address issues of sustainability of its creative generation to generation. Typical OTOP products stores; and economy. To this end, many scholars agree include textiles, cotton and silk garments, pottery, from villagers receiving a single-crop income, to that the Thai government is contributing huge woven handicrafts, artistry items, gifts, fashion villagers earning additional OTOP incomes (Kenan financial and human resources in institutions of accessories, household items, traditional food such Institute of Asia, 2009). higher learning with the goal of: as the famous Thai soup Tom yam-kung and many other articles indigenous to each community. The Thus it can be argued that Thailands creative producing new knowledge that will feed the essential characteristic of these products is that they industries can be deemed to have worked a creative industry sector; are carefully hand-made traditional items. Such miracle in terms of improving the general supporting research that will identify, products are based on originality; reflect cultural and traditional practices of each rural locality. They ...most African governments need to formally recognise the role are termed community products celebrating and played by creative industries in development. exhibiting elements of the uniqueness that each

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stimulate, nurture creativity and innovation in young people so as to ensure a long term supply of creative talent in the creative

economy; encouraging research that will set quality assurance standards; and

supporting research that will develop instruments for assessing the quality of products (Kenan Institute of Asia, 2009)

LESSONS FOR AFRICAN CREATIVE INDUSTRIES FROM THAILANDS ExPERIENCE

From Thailands experience the critical lesson that can be learnt by the southern African countries revolves around the role of the state (state-craft) or the ability of the state to design and implement strategies and policies for rural development. Although the role of the state in development has been a contested terrain for a while, there is no doubt the success of any policy or rural development programmes depends on the support/political will it receives from the state. For instance, the rapid industrialisation of Asian countries (newly industrialised countries, NICS) is often accredited to the central role that was/is played by the state in the development process. Even the World Bank has come to admit, albeit reluctantly, that the state was heavily involved in the NICs development process. Although it still argues against a developmental state and for a minimalist role of the state in economic affairs. In this regard, most African governments need to formally recognise the role played by creative industries in development. This should be followed by formulation and implementation of intervention measures that will support emerging rural creative industries so that the potential of creative industries can be realised in southern Africa, and the whole continent at large. Perhaps the area that needs immediate redress is the education system. Coltart (2011) argues that the tragedy of the African education system today from a career perspective is that it is exclusively academically orientated. It is an education system that focuses on academic subjects, such as Maths, English and Science. It doesnt nurture other talents, thereby excluding some of the best African artists, carpenters and designers. This renders the current education system as deficient. Therefore, there is need for it to be reformed by designing curricula that look beyond the technical teaching of Science, Maths and Geography. Internationally, the country which is recognised objectively as having the best education system in the world is Finland. Finland accords equal status to academic and vocational education. Hence there is a need to ensure, for example, that sport and art should not be seen as mere extracurricular activities but rather as businesses and as careers for the future. Investment in developmental research is another key lesson that can be learnt from the experience of the Thailands creative industries because knowledge and creativity are interrelated. Therefore, African governments should increase their support for research activities in public sector education or research institutes because the need to undertake groundbreaking research that should accomplish the following is greater than ever: research that will first address the question of research methodologies that are appropriate for researching creative industries; research that will determine the existence, nature and status of creative industries in the rural areas; research that will produce valid quantitative and qualitative data that can be used to measure not only the strength of creative industries in the rural areas but also the extent of cultural diversity in rural societies; and research that will lead to the development and implementation of tailor-made curricula that will address the skills shortage in the creative industries sector.

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Other key lessons that can benefit creative industries in southern Africa establishment of new institutions that will offer the much needed skills, from Thailands experience include the design and implementation of business advise, business management and marketing skills that are policies that are aimed at: critical to the creative industries. stimulating creativity and innovation in young people to ensure a longterm supply of creative talent; establishment of stronger connections between culture, education and training because creative industries require a constant, long-term supply of creative talent which can be ensured via linkages with the educational system; ensuring that talent is identified and developed in primary, secondary and tertiary education; The importance of encouraging community-driven development should not be overlooked as it is another way of ensuring the sustainability of development initiatives. Hence, rural communities should be empowered in a way that they are able to identify challenges they face and identify possible solutions to such challenges. If communities are empowered they become encouraged to be the agency of change in their communities. This is another way of entrenching self-reliance and at the same time promoting creativity.

THE STATE OF CREATIVE INDUSTRIES IN SOUTHERN AFRICA

The potential of creative industries in Africa is currently going unrealised for a number of reasons, ranging from lack of awareness to inadequate institutions and lack of access to global markets. These creative or cultural industries are located in what is categorised as the informal sector and enjoy limited if not no support from government. The dominant form of creative industries taking place in rural South Africa and the sub-region at large are crafts and cultural tourism. Craft practitioners utilise a variety of resources such as clay, grass, beads, wax, stone, wood, textile and fibre etc. Provinces such as Gauteng, Western Cape and KwaZulu-Natal are reported to be having the highest concentration craft enterprises. Some of the key challenges faced by creative industries in the rural areas include the following: lack of access to credit as most of the firms are small and do not have any form of collateral to offer to banks as insurance ; lack of entrepreneurial skills; regulations which are usually not designed with them in mind, but affect them disproportionally due to their relatively small size; and access to markets (both internal and external). A few countries in the sub-region, such as South Africa, have started to recognise the role played by creative industries in rural development. In South Africa, through the Accelerated Shared Growth Initiative for South Africa (ASGISA), creative industries were identified as one of the drivers of sustainable economic opportunities and livelihoods diversification for local communities. This wide recognition of the role played by creative industries led to the enactment of various pieces of legislation and policies to support the sector. However, South Africa faces the challenge of lack of scientific data that can determine the existence, nature, status, strength and impact of creative industries in the rural areas. At Walter Sisulu University efforts are underway to establish the National Centre for Creative Industries. Among other roles the Centre is going to play is embarking on various research programmes that will produce scientific data. This scientific data will be used to transform cultural resources into large-scale consumable goods and services within the national and international market. The overall goal of such a process is employment creation and income generation in rural areas of the Eastern Cape Province and the whole country at large.

CONCLUSION
In closing it can be argued that the fostering of creative industries promises to generate employment, diversify rural livelihoods and open new opportunities for international trade in developing countries as showcased by the experiences of Thailand. The huge developmental prospects of these industries lies in the fact that they do not draw on factors that most poor countries lack, such as capital or natural resources. Instead they draw on factors such as creativity and talent, which all humanity, including Africa, is richly endowed with. As illustrated by the case of Thailand where the potential has been unleashed, great economic successes have been achieved and the world has been enriched. Lastly, given the rich cultural diversity in Africa, the prospects of creative industries can be argued to be a sleeping giant whose prospects include the following. A means of: developing individual and communities self-confidence; diversifying rural livelihoods; building skills and sustainable employment creation; celebrating culture, history and preserving the continents threatened traditions; promoting collective entrepreneurship; attracting tourists thereby boosting the tourism sector; and earning foreign currency through the exportation of unique value added cultural products that are competitive in international markets. If effectively nurtured and exploited creative industries could offer more economic, social and cultural benefits to South Africa and the sub-region at large.

References: References for this article can be viewed on the Afesis-corplan website: www.afesis.org.za

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> Noxolo kabaNe

Creating a netWorked soCiety

Community activism and strong civic and ratepayer organisations have been part of the countrys history for a very long time. During the fight for democracy many of these organisations and selfless individuals stood up together and spoke with a united voice for what they believed was right when it came to democracy and development. A unique feature of the South African government system is the space in which ordinary people can become actively involved in governance. As a result of this space that has been created, it is made clear that we all have the right to influence the decisions that affect our lives and we all have the responsibility to contribute to the development of a society in which all can realise their potential. Over the last nine years, we have witnessed the retreat of the state in favour of privatisation and neo-liberalism, and we have observed a corresponding increase in the activities of civil society, social movements and area-based organisations. These activities including service delivery protests and a most recent one would be the action that civil society took on coming together and commenting and making their voice heard against the Protection of Information Bill. Not only have historically significant non-governmental organisations (NGOs) shifted their focus from anti-apartheid action to address the inequalities still prevalent in a democratic South Africa, but newly organised groups of the urban and rural poor have also come together to demand their rights and entitlements from the state. This increase in social advocacy presents an important opportunity to derive lessons on the role of civil society in attaining the rights promised by the constitution, fostering good governance and accountability and strengthening public participation in this post-apartheid era (DAG roundtable discussion report, 2009:3). Civil society has a critical role to play in increasing demand for universal access to basic human rights and for holding governments accountable. While there exists a wealth of capacity and expertise among many civil

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society organisations, one of the main obstacles to progress that has often been raised is the need to strengthen technical and institutional support to grassroots and community level organisations. On its part, civil society has a responsibility to use the available platforms of engagement and participation provided by the state. Communities and civil society organisations can play a critical role in collecting and disseminating information regarding the governments activities. Civil society needs to utilise participation spaces provided for under the Constitution and various other pieces of legislation. By doing so, they add value to our participatory democracy and help to energise meaningful community participation at the local level. Both the general public and civil society should understand that the effects of enhancing peoples sustainable participatory capabilities and

improving government services do not become visible in the short run. There are neither quickfixes nor easy victories. Government has to be kept on its toes and this is a solemn duty to those being governed it is a way of helping the government deliver on its mandate. In all this, communities must take an active role in trying to attain self-reliance. Partnerships between government and civil society are important for communities because these relationships enable communities to flourish and be part of their own development. With all that is said how are these relations between civil society and government initiated, maintained and grown? This process begins with the creation of a strong civil society which has access to information and is aware of spaces in which they can engage their government. International best practices suggest that the limited success of state-led initiatives at

improving the performance of local authority leaders can be enhanced through increased civil society involvement in local governance processes and structures. This is because civil society, as a recipient of local government services, is well-placed to evaluate and make demands on local government officials to improve the levels and quality of services delivered by local government. In South Africa, civil society also yields power through its electoral mandate to vote for leaders and councillors in local government (GGLN 2010:21). This article will seek to address how civil society collaboration, networking and partnerships between communities, non-government organisations and other structures can lead to success and growth in communities, better service delivery and a quality life for all. This collaboration can be seen within civil society organisations prior to engaging government on the one hand, and collaboration that exists between civil society and government on the other.

WHY THE NEED FOR COLLABORATION

Civil society has a critical role to play in increasing demand for universal access to basic human rights and for holding governments accountable.
The process of community organising or collaboration is intended to be an empowering process, where community members are able to influence development outcomes, contribute meaningfully to the process by providing their own ideas, and learn new skills, insights and knowledge of the development process. The process of collaboration is intended to create a platform of engagement between the community and the state institutions and improve communication between communities and the government. The purpose is also intended to mobilise the community so as to speak with a more united voice, eliminate unnecessary division in the community, and be able to express their constitutional rights and obligations clearly without ambiguity. This process acts as a funnel of representation, it provides communities with an opportunity to engage, influence, lobby and pilot some of the ideas and processes that have positive spin-offs for the community (spin-offs which would lead an improved social cohesion, social capital, and community as an asset that can bargain and enter into effective partnerships). To begin lets pause and ask the following questions, when does the need for collaboration arise? What does civil society collaborate on? This happens in the process of formulation of policies, plans and programmes that will influence the decisions that are made on behalf of society. For collaboration to be achieved there should always exist an opportunity for meaningful engagement; communication lines must always be open. Collaboration would be between civil society organisations, social movements, youth, women groups and civics who then engage government on their common interest. With that being said this engagement can not be seen as a one way communication street, it has to be a series of conversations during which both civil society groupings and government need to be able to listen and endeavor to understand the points of view presented. Collaboration between bigger, stronger organisations and smaller organisations. When we discuss and think about collaboration it should not only be about the stronger organisations collaborating together but collaborations should also exist between community based organisations and the bigger better resourced organisations. This type of collaboration will then enable the more experienced organisations to share skills Vol18 No1

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and capacitate those that are not as strong. How often does a local authority really explore the potential of these groups? How often does the municipality or the government invite communities to look at the big picture and their role within it? How often does the government inform communities about gaps they could help to fill? And if they do, is it presented in a way that makes sense and in a language these groups understand? There is growing recognition that the state cannot and should not try and do development on its own, and that tackling challenges is best done as a collective. It has been seen in many instances that when communities and groups get involved in taking action to tackle something that affects them all, whether its making the community safer or working together to address a bigger problem such as job creation, there are many positive outcomes that can be attained. As communities, organisations and other structures we should view taking on challenges as an opportunity to be empowered and providing an opportunity for people to learn from one another, develop friendships and relationships, and it also means that information can be shared. As collaborative actors it is important that all perspectives should be considered in the process and made aware that no idea or proposal is insignificant. In the process, the empowerment and capacitation of these organisations should form part of the priorities of this collaboration.

the state. However there have been challenges reaching some form of common ground on what the focus of each CSAG will be when it comes to their collaboration. Many questions were raised during the process, including how long will this collaboration last? Are we entering into a long-term or short-term agreement with this collaboration? What are we hoping to achieve in collaborating as civil society organisations? What are the benefits of entering into collaboration with other like minded civil society organisations? The Development Action Group (DAG) based in Cape Town has also started this discussion of forming urban forums whereby civil society organisations, NGOs, CBOs, activists, youth formations and other structures come together and engage the state on matters of concern. In 2009 DAG hosted an advocacy roundtable, where throughout the roundtable discussions; an impulse of collaboration amongst CBOs was evident. Some NGOs that were present were hesitant towards the idea of collaboration. They felt that networks were often challenging to manage and many also felt that this idea of working in silos was short-sighted and at times did not have much impact when it comes to engaging the state. Manuel Castells theory of the networked society, where power can be found in conglomerations of civil society groups within countries and across borders, is increasingly popular amongst donors who prefer to work with networks rather than with individual organisations in order to achieve a larger impact. An example of this networked society can be seen with Abahlali baseMjondolo which is linked to a larger network of social movements, civil society groups and international NGOs. Due to the links that they have formed it is possible for their international affiliations to assist them to put pressure on the national government in support of their goals. This type of networked activism responds to the reality that much of national governance is determined outside of national borders often through international precedent, political and economic will, and so on. Their experience also shows the benefits of solidarity action (DAG Advocacy roundtable discussion report, 2009:34).

Partnerships between government and civil society are important for communities because these relationships enable communities to flourish and be part of their own development.
Afesis-corplan has already initiated this idea of collaboration between civil society organisations and how they can meaningfully engage the state on matters of own interest so as to achieve sustainable services for citizens. This form of collaboration has been practiced with the Civil Society Action Groups (CSAG) that have been established in different areas around the Amathole District Municipality. The process of collaboration is one that is dynamic and presents many alternatives on how to engage

WHAT CAN BE DONE TO CREATE COLLABORATIONS?

A number of things can be done by people who would want to collaborate and a few of these can be seen below. It therefore becomes critical to have some framework on how to develop and maintain this collaboration between actors; this could be seen as some form of terms of reference for the group.

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We need to be clear on what collaboration entails and how best it can be done to maximise on participation on those involved. Come together as a team: Addressing a problem, big or small, is best tackled and approached as a team. Talking with other people on how to do something provides a range of possibilities and greater chances of finding solutions. Develop a common vision: Engaging on matters of common interest makes the collaboration more meaningful and easy to manage. Expand your network: To some of us networking can seem vague, but having a broad network of

people from different walks of life can be very beneficial. As social beings we thrive on building and maintaining relationships with a diverse number of people, we therefore create short cuts to accessing information and ideas that might help with situations that we are facing. Build trust within the group: Networking only delivers benefits when it is based on integrity,

honesty and authenticity. Engaging meaningfully: For collaborations to work and be meaningful, it needs to be effectively channelled to those individuals that can actually make the decisions on the matter at hand. Nothing is more de-motivating than wasting time on a process of engagement where no one is able to take responsibility for what is happening.

The process of collaboration is intended to create a platform of engagement between the community and the state institutions and improve communication between communities and the government.

CONCLUSION
Community-led initiatives potentially open up new avenues through which governance relationships can be progressively strengthened. It is possible that different sector organisations could collaborate more frequently and creatively on issues of common concern. Collaborative action is not possible if the actors do not have full understanding and relevant information on the collaboration and the engagement process. Collaboration makes it possible for citizens to influence a decision, at times even by overturning previous decisions. Some initiatives that can be implemented to create these networked societies would be to give an active role to community groups to do some of the consulting within their communities so as to be in sync with what is happening and with proposed developments. Another strategy that could be implemented would be to move beyond consultation around the mere identification of needs (the deficit model) to explore what a community can contribute (the assets/strengths model). Therefore let us continue this conversation in our organisations and in our private lives, and explore how we can support the creation of a collaborative and networked society.

gOOD gOVERNANCE SURVEY (ggS)

Afesis-corplan in partnership with Amathole District councillors and officials. The GGS provides a municipality is currently embarking on a Good platform to detect early warning system in Governance Survey in the Amahlati, Great Kei, identifying any local governance issues that could Mbhashe and Nkonkobe Municipalites. A Good create conflict at a later stage. Governance Survey (GGS) is a tool consisting of a set of indicators for measuring community perceptions The focal point of GGS is to strengthen three central of local governance and for identifying opportunities principles at the core of local government policy: for improvement. The GGS is mostly a perceptionbased survey with additional empirical information 1. Political leaders to remain accountable and from the municipality. It helps to bring different operate within their electoral mandate; stakeholders within the municipality together to 2. Citizens as individuals or groups to retain the formulate a common perspective of the issues opportunity for continuous input into local confronting the municipality and to collectively policies and practices; and devise solutions. It promotes meaningful dialogue 3. Residents to have an influence over the way between the communities and municipality. The services are delivered and some form of cofollowing three categories of respondents will be operation or partnership to occur between civil interviewed within each municipality: members society and local state to assist in development. of the general public (including Community Based Organisations and Non-Governmental The involvement of District Municipalities is Organisations); Ward committees; and Municipal important as District municipalities are a key source of support to and can offer advice and guidance that will pre-empt any crisis at the local municipality level. District municipalities are also in a unique position to make an objective and comparative assessment of different local governance practices within the municipalities of the district The results from the survey will be used explicitly to assist these municipalities in the district and other stakeholders such as civil society, to identify key governance issues within the district and opportunities and strategies for improvements. The lessons from the implementation of the survey in Amathole District municipalities will be used to expand the use of the GGS to other districts and local municipalities in the country. The report of the survey will be available via the municipality. We will provide further updates on the findings of this research and publish such in the Transformer.

References: CPS (Centre for Policy Studies). 2010. The State of Local Governance in South Africa: The (Potential) Role of Civil Society Organisations in Enhancing Good Governance in South African Local Authorities: A case study of Soweto Concerned residents. | DAG: Advocacy Roundtable Discussion Report, 2009. | GGGLN (Good Governance Learning Network). 2010. Local Democracy in Action: A Civil Society Perspective on Local Governance in South Africa. Cape Town: GGLN. Himlin B, (2009), Thoughts on meaningful engagement from NGO perspective. | Makwela M, (2009), Community organising/ basic organising. | http://www.afesis.org.za/Local-Governance-Articles/in-pursuit-of-self-reliance-the-need-for-activecitizenship | http://www.urbanforum.org.uk/community-rights-made-real-blog/what-s-blocking-the-community-right-of-way

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making Co-reLations
media and CiviL soCiety
>PeNeloPe Vellem

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Close to two decades into our democracy, the promotion of all its core principles (like accountability, tolerance and equality) has been a challenge for both government and civil society groups. In essence, democracy is more than just voting. In an ideal situation, democracy gives citizens the opportunity to participate in government at a local level; ideally where this opportunity is fully utilised by the citizens. This essentially has been the crack in the trajectory of the envisioned democratic state. Citizens have the right to disagree with government and to express their disagreement in a constructive manner. In exercising this right people have over the years, organised themselves into what are formally known as civil society groups. On average an individual citizen does not normally have the power to directly affect the political life of a country. This necessitates the involvement of individuals in local political structures or civil society groups where their voices can be heard. This is all better said than done because still a lot of people suffer in silence with no understanding of this very

right, and other rights and responsibilities that may see their lives being changed for the good. Civil society groups and political structures often do not reach the people that need information the most. If no one takes the initiative to educate communities about their rights those communities stand to face the unthinkable reality of being ill-developed while the rest of society continues to grow. My people perish for a lack of knowledge (Hosea 4:6); this statement stands true in whatever religious group, social class, racial group and/or country the people may be from. The purpose of this article is to re-open our eyes and development minds to the possibilities of integrating development plans between the Government, Civil Society and Community Media. Media plays a significant role in shaping public perception on

different issues, some fundamental to development and some not so fundamental. According to Ngumbela (2010) it is crucial for purposeful partnerships to be forged between the media and development agencies in order to ensure that large segments of society are informed about developments happening around them. These can be done through various media channels such as print and broadcast in the language of the people. Despite a number of attempts to strengthen the partnership between local civil society organisations and local media in the Eastern Cape, limited tangible results have been achieved. Working together remains talk rather than producing any concrete action. This article aims at going beyond just talk and discusses solid possibilities of a plan to work together.

Despite a number of attempts to strengthen the partnership between local civil society organisations and local media in the Eastern Cape, limited tangible results have been achieved.

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CIVIL SOCIETY ORgANISATIONS

Described by Martens (2002) and cited by Ngumbela (2010), as major groups, pressure groups, interest groups, private voluntary organisations, third sector organisation, activist organisations, non-profit bodies, professional, voluntary and citizen organisations; civil society groups possess the power to hold government and politicians accountable to the people. Their main focus is the people, and although they are not entirely meant to solve the communities socio-economic problems (both directly and indirectly); they primarily work at empowering and equipping people with the necessary skills and knowledge to become functioning citizens within a democratic state. The few people that are fortunate enough to get involved in these groups are taught the principles of democracy, which consists of: Participation People have the right and the duty to vote in elections and join political parties and civil society organisations. Equality - All people should be treated equally and without discrimination and be given equal opportunities. Tolerance - Everyone, including minority groups, should be allowed to express their opinions and join political, religious or civil society organisations of their own choice. Accountability - Government must be accountable to the people for its actions, including the laws that are passed and how these laws are implemented. Transparency - Government must report openly and honestly and it must be transparent in its dealings with the public. Regular, free and fair elections - Elections must happen regularly in a free and fair way, without intimidation, corruption or threats to any member of the public. Accepting the results of elections - When a political party loses an election, its leaders and supporters must accept the outcome of the election. Economic freedom - People should be allowed to have some kind of private ownership of property and business and they should be allowed to choose their own type of work and join labour unions. The government should not totally control the economy. Control of the abuse of power - There should be ways to prevent government officials from abusing their powers. The courts should be independent and they should have the power to act against government officials or bodies that commit an illegal or corrupt act. Human Rights - The human rights of individuals and groups should be protected, as stipulated in the Bill of Rights. Multi-party System - More than one political party must be allowed to participate in elections and play a role in government. Rule of Law - The rule of law means that no one is above the law, including the president or leader of the country (Mason, 2007). Understanding these principles is essential for the holistic growth and success of democracy and if not fully understood could result in there being a breakdown in the system. On the side of the people, many may agree that participation is one area of democracy that we as a country have not yet been able to fully grasp. This subsequently leads to a breakdown in the other principles of democracy; participation is what holds democracy together. A strategy that has been evaluated and seen to be most effective in the promotion of democracy, and particularly participation, has been using community media. Community media/radio is based on the principles of community development and community participation. It therefore goes without saying that the main commitment and mandate for community media is to produce programming on themes that will contribute to the development of the communities that they serve. Community participation means that the community should play an active role in their own process of development, and ensure that their local community media hubs serve the specific needs of their community (M4SD, 2004).

Communication for Empowerment is a critical driver for securing the necessary participation, ownership and accountability for achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

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amalgamation between community media and civil society groups, one would begin by pointing out their similarities rather than the different methods used to reach the primary objectives of these groups. Community media hubs are owned and controlled by the community. In some cases the legal owner is the community itself, through an association established for that very purpose. In others the legal owner is a not-for-profit group, cooperative, municipality, an NGO or even a privately-owned company acting on behalf of the community. Regardless of the legal structure, the policies and objectives of these community media hubs are articulated with a strong input from stakeholders within the community and community members have both a sense of ownership and a responsibility to shape the hub/ station to suit their wishes and needs.

COMMUNITY MEDIA
In researching for this article, I could not find a single definition of what community media could possibly mean. Literature describes it as a hybrid, a unique communication process shaped by a few characteristics and by the distinct culture,

history, and reality of the community it serves. Nevertheless, what I found as common attributes to community media was that it is an enterprise that is community-based, independent, not-forprofit, is for the community, and participatory in nature. Some of these characteristics also describe the original civil society forums. In advocating this

Looking particularly at community radio stations, they are usually defined geographically, although their size can range from a neighbourhood or small town, to an entire city or a vast rural area covering thousands of square kilometres. These radio stations also serve particular communities of interest such as women, youth or linguistic and cultural minorities.

MEDIA PARTICIPATION: A NEW ERA FOR DEVELOPMENT

According to the UNDP (2006), information and communication focused interventions are central in bringing about participation. The belief is that genuine involvement and participation can only occur if the information needs of all citizens (including those at the margins of societies) are met and the voices of those most affected by development decisions are heard. Media, when given the chance, can play a crucial role in empowering vulnerable and marginalised groups. This, according to the UNDP can best be achieved if media support and media capacity development is directed in a way that enables the media to better respond to and reflect the information and communication needs of these groups. This kind of media support can be called Communication for Empowerment. Communication for Empowerment is a critical driver for securing the necessary participation, ownership and accountability for achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Building community competence depends on initiatives that result in more individual connections and more associational connections. The basic question is how to multiply the connections and associations in the modern world we live in Well connected, active in associational and civic (McKnight & Block, 2010). life; know the ways of the community; Trusted and able to create new trusting A simple answer to this question posed by relationships; McKnight and Block would be to simply Believers in the potential of people from their local commit ourselves as development practitioners communitys; are not cynical, doubting observers to partnerships with others that go beyond our of local residents and have an innate knowledge of day-to-day running of a business. According to the communitys wealth; and McKnight and Block, this process starts unfolding People who enjoy connections, convening, and once certain people, deemed as community inviting people to come together. They dont seek connectors, are identified. These individuals are to lead, rather they seek to maximise the power those that are more visible and who have an ability they feel present when people join together. They to connect. This skill, within communities, is often are hospitable. underused, undeveloped or unrecognised. This I believe is what is happening with community Community media could be maximised in this media, which has an array of benefits for our function of connecting, where we (as civil society) communities, which we fail to tap into. see the potential of community media and use it to push our main agenda; to see our communities The article makes a correlation between the developing holistically. As communities, once we community connectors, as illustrated by realise and optimise the functioning of community McKnight and Block, and community media, as media within our communities, we start creating defined previously. a world that we would like to see ourselves living in. And as an overrun of these partnerships we Community connecters are: would find community members working together to develop themselves and their areas, where the Gift-centred people who see the full half in true sense of the word community comes alive. everyone; In the words of McKnight and Block (2010:140),

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The courage it takes to rebuild the fabric of our community is the price we pay for creating the world we want to inhabit. At the end of it all, to see ourselves reaching our goals and creating participative democratic communities, we need to get past our discomforts and work at cultivating these relationships again and again and again. How to promote advocacy through Media, drawing on comments from the Eastern Cape Communication Forums meeting So here we are, how do we move from just talking about these relationships and their potential, and to actually step inside the picture that we see as being our future in advocating for development? At a session hosted by the Eastern Cape Communications Forum (ECCF) in November 2011, participants were asked to fill in cards with ideas as to how ECCF and Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) could work together in creating a better understanding for local media and start utilising it more effectively. Four areas of interest emerged from this exercise and these are: networking, having/hosting workshops, promoting advocacy through media and finding ways to jointly fundraise for projects that would see us utilising this function more. The first point under networking was to strengthen the already existing relationships that were happening amongst the CSOs that were present at the session. We also have to start sharing our databases, our success stories by utilising journalism students in the documenting of these stories; and to start building bridges with local businesses and the community itself. From the discussion, it was understood that

we needed to have deeper knowledge on the The Eastern Cape NGO Coalition (ECNGOC) and functioning of the different organisations present Afesis-corplan regularly receive articles produced by both from the media and the CSO sector. We can the Student News Agency (SNA) and some have only fully function together when we know more been published on the ECNGOC website. about each other and to ultimately let go of anxieties The Student News Agency is in the process to that result in us not moving forward. developing its own website, of which a link will feature on the Eastern Cape Communication Forum It was suggested in discussions at the ECCF (ECCF) website. meeting in November that NGOs could use local ECNGOC and Nadcao have shared their database media to look at more content related issues such with ECCF. as governance, Integrated Development Plans, Wessa and ECCF jointly produce articles on health issues, promoting participative democracy, environmental issues that are circulated to local education on environmental issues and education media on a quarterly basis. of communities on the different spheres of Afesis-corplan invited ECCF to join the workshops government, particularly on issues of basic services. hosted by DDP as well as the project on a Civil These need not be mass productions; rather, smaller Society Action Group in Mdantsane to ensure sectoral activities could be planned like Fun Runs, linkages to local media. in advocating for healthier living, etc. ECCF has received funding from Open Society Foundation (OSF) to implement a project in five On the issue of fund raising, seeing that these are communities to get citizens involved in municipal CSOs, community media, together with NGOs matters through and with the aid of local media. could develop joint proposals for different projects CSOs working in the field of local government and work at roping in local businesses which and governance will play a vital role in providing would sponsor some of the community awareness information and joining as partners. activities.

As communities, once we realise and optimise the functioning of community media within our communities, we start creating a world that we would like to see ourselves living in.
The purpose of this article is not to say that nothing has been happening, but rather to focus on viewing these partnerships as the course that will aid our efforts in developing our communities. Some of the work that has been done between these groups includes: The challenge now would be to keep on with these partnerships and to reiterate what McKnight and Block (2010) said: The courage it takes to rebuild the fabric of our community is the price we pay for creating the world we want to inhabit. With that said. Let us press forward towards a world that we want to inhabit.

LIST OF LOCAL COMMUNITY MEDIA

COMMUNITY NEWSPAPERS Eastern Cape Today Eastern Cape Voice News Idike Lethu News Ikamva LaseGcuwa Izimvo Suburban bugle East London King Williams Town Alice Butterworth King Williams Town East London
References: McKnight, J & Block P, 2010. The Abundant Community: Awakening the Power of Families and Neighbourhoods. Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc: San Francisco | Mason, A, 2007. Democracy and You: A community manual on Governance and Participation in the New South Africa. Democracy Development Programme (DDP). Ngumbela, N, 2010. Media and NGOs: A Call for Team Work to Aid Community Development. Transformer: Afesis-corplan M4SD, 2004. Media for Sustainable Development Content Survey: A Baseline Study Report On Sustainable Development Content/Themes for Community Radio Stations in Africa and Central America. Open Society Foundation: South Africa Democratic Governance Group of UNDP. 2004. Communication for Empowerment: Developing Media strategies in Support of Vulnerable groups. Bureau for Development policy

COMMUNITY RAdIO STATIONS Forte Fm 100.6Mhz Khanya fm 100.1Mhz Link fm 97.1Mhz Mdantsane fm 89.5Mhz Alice Butterworth East London East London

OTHER INdEPENdENT PUbLICATIONS Sisonke (ECNGOC) Transformer (Afesis Corplan) Business Hi-lite INdEPENdENT ONLINE MEdIA Township Times www.townshiptimes.co.za East London East London East London East London

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smaLL sCaLe agriCuLture

> lashiola kutya

INTRODUCTION
Small-scale agriculture is the production of crops and livestock on a small piece of land without using advanced and expensive technologies. Though the definition of size of these farms is a source of debate, it can be argued that farming on family pieces of land, on traditional lands and smallholdings on the periphery of urban areas fall in this category. This type of farming is usually characterised by intensive labour and in most cases, animal traction, limited use of agrochemicals and supply to the local or surrounding markets. Unlike large-scale commercial agriculture, it plays a dual role of being a source of household food security as well as income from sale of surplus. Although some claim small scale agriculture is less efficient in output as compared to commercial agriculture (Kirsten & Van Zyl, 1998 ), it is ecologically friendly in that less land is cleared for cultivation, there are less emissions due to less use of fuel-driven machinery and the market is usually local implying less carbon miles. On the other hand permaculturalists and others claim that per unit of area small scale agriculture is far more productive than commercial agriculture in terms of total output from the piece of land. Economically, small scale agriculture enhances local economic development as it is a source of employment and keeps most of the income local as the market is predominantly localised. Socially, especially on traditional lands, the produce is first meant to feed the household thereby contributing to food security. Despite this importance, small scale farming is slowly being less practised due to a number of factors such as reliance on limited technical and financial support, indifference among the youth to farming, government policies that are in most cases not area-specific, and reliance on other livelihood sources such as formal employment and social grants. The other problem is that agricultural technological institutions have been sidelined in the agrarian agenda and are therefore not making a meaningful impact in the sector. This article is a collation of summaries of some presentations made at a seminar hosted by Afesis-corplan on Small Scale/Holder Agriculture in November 2011. Topics discussed included, permaculture, the role of agricultural technical institutions, de-agrarianisation versus job creation and household food security, and the Unisa household food security model. The seminar, facilitated by Dr P Moyo from the University of Fort Hare, was aimed at sharing of views on the role and plight of small scale agriculture.

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PROMOTINg THE UNISA HOUSEHOLD FOOD SECURITY MODEL IN THE EASTERN CAPE PROVINCE: BY ARTWELL CHIVHINGE (EASTERN CAPE NGO COALITION)
Participation of households in food security immensely contributes towards addressing the poverty, unemployment, under-nutrition, and other socio-economic challenges being faced in South Africa and can assist in reducing the current burden on the Government in terms of payment of grants. The Integrated Food Security Strategy (IFSS) South Africa (Department of Agriculture, 2002) defines food security as the physical, social and economic access by all households at all times to adequate, safe and nutritious food and clean water to meet their dietary and food preferences for a healthy and productive life. Section 27 of the Constitution of South Africa states that every citizen has a right to access sufficient food and water. Bonti Ankomah (2001) explains that these definitions imply that either there will be ability by an individual to be self-sufficient in food production through own production, or there will be accessibility to markets and ability to purchase food items. The Household Food Security (HFS) model offered by Unisas College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences (CAES) is an accredited NQF level 5 short learning programme. It aims at promoting small scale and subsistence farming through equipping individuals who wish to become household food security facilitators and change agents, with skills that can be used to empower households within their communities through facilitating improved food security status, health and nutrition. The HFS programme is at present being piloted in the Eastern Cape Province with the help and support of networks of non-governmental organisations (NGOs), community-based organisations (CBOs) and faithbased organisations (FBOs) running community development initiatives within communities. These organisations have helped in the recruiting and supporting of suitable students and have, in some instances, provided HFS programme promoters from within their own ranks. However, the model faces some challenges. One of these is that the Eastern Cape is widely spread hence it is difficult and expensive to monitor and support implementation of the model. The impact of the model can be enhanced in both urban and rural areas, by linking it with local governments Integrated Development Plans (IDPs), and the programmes of the departments of Human Settlements, Agriculture, Health, Education, and Social Development. All these departments have an element of food security in their programmes. The model could also use the Department of Health model of Community Health Care Workers who work directly in the communities, not at ward level but also supported by the clinics around them. In this case, the Department of Agriculture will be more visible and closer to the people through household food security facilitators. The municipalities should be directly involved and link this model to service delivery such as water, land and ownership issues.

AgRICULTURAL TRAININg INSTITUTIONS (ATIS) RESPONSE TO SMALL SCALE AgRICULTURE IN SOUTH AFRICA BY MULUGHETA G ARAIA (FORT COx COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURE AND FORESTRY)
South Africa still lags behind in the achievement the Millennium Development Goals of food security and poverty eradication. The current trends of education in South Africa affect the agriculture sector. Agriculture information is not integrated with other development programmes to address the numerous related problems faced by small scale and emerging farmers. Information is an essential ingredient in agricultural development programmes. There is fragmentation and lack of coordination within the system particularly with respect to governance, finance, articulation, progression and mobility. (variation among institutions), and poor quality of staff especially in most agriculture schools and Further Education and Training (FET) Colleges. In addition, the ineffective and non-responsive education and training systems (curriculum, staff quality, poor linkage between Agricultural Education and Training (AET) providers and Industry, low research base) and poor access to AET by emerging and new entrants into the agricultural sector makes it harder for people to get good agricultural training. Underlying these difficulties is the negative career Given the relatively small size of the small scale agriculture sector in South Africa at the moment compared to the commercial farming sector, and its potential for economic growth, food security, employment and poverty alleviation, an investment in land development and land reform is crucial for the sector to grow. Investment in human capital development, in the form of professional, managerial and technical training, produced by investment in schools, FET and agricultural colleges, universities, and formal and informal farmer training will also be valuable in promoting the small scale farming sector. One idea is for agricultural colleges and universities to adopt schools where agriculture can be taught as part of the school curriculum. The small scale farming sector can be further enhanced by improvements in the performance of farmers services and support institutions such as marketing, credit, research and extension; and by promoting agriculture as an integral component of the rural development agenda.

Educating and training people on agriculture can significantly contribute towards promoting and capacitating small scale and emerging farmers.
Educating and training people on agriculture can significantly contribute towards promoting and capacitating small scale and emerging farmers. However, the challenge in achieving this potential is that there is poor and inconsistent quality control image of agriculture that is painted by society. This is exacerbated by the shortage of critical skills in agricultural fields such as production, engineering, economics and development.

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Small scale agriculture in South Africa is in a period of flux, exploration and experimentation.

Marketing of Agriculture as a profession through career days, conferences, and exhibitions is critical to changing community mindsets and to eradicate the dependency syndrome on social grants and heavy reliance on charity and remittances. Small scale agriculture has an important role to play in food

production and in keeping rural communities vibrant. Small scale agriculture in South Africa is in a period of flux, exploration and experimentation. It will only be a success if there is synergy from all departments and a willingness to engage from the communities themselves.

LEMERCIER (RENEWABLE ENERGY AND TRANSITION NETWORK)

THE PROS AND CONS OF PERMACULTURE VERSUS CONVENTIONAL FOOD PRODUCTION IN A NEW CLIMATE CHANgE AND PEAk OIL CONTExT - BY PIERRE-LOUIS
The two main objectives of the White Paper are: Permaculture should be considered as a sustainable food production system - a completely new way to plan food production. Cuba is a good example of where they use permaculture to produce food in a to effectively manage inevitable climate change impacts through interventions that build and sustain South Africas social, economic low carbon manner with almost no input (fertilisers and pesticides) and environmental resilience and emergency response capacity; and nor transport and heavy equipment (all of which depend on oil and are sourced externally). Employment was created, and the principle to make a fair contribution to the global effort to stabilise greenhouse gas (GHG) concentrations in the atmosphere at a level of working with nature was applied by rehabilitating and using the that avoids dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate many environmental services (nutrient and inputs recycling). As a system within a timeframe that enables economic, social and result Cubans produced healthy food that had no external costs. The environmental development to proceed in a sustainable manner documentary The Power of Community: How Cuba Survived Peak Oil, (www.climateaction.org.za). was shown to give a background on how Cuba addressed its socioeconomic challenges and agriculture in general, after the withdrawal Although it is widely agreed that a low carbon vision should inform of oil and aid from the Soviet Union. To achieve sustainable economic decisions within the agriculture sector, it has been argued that due to development it is vital to work with the community and work with the a lack of information and a clear articulation of this low carbon vision environment instead of fighting with the forces of nature. to farmers and most government departments, the dream of low carbon agriculture forever remains just a wish. Low carbon farming not only supports sustainable farming but recognises that small scale Agricultural development strategies should labour intensive agriculture techniques and models could reverse the promote the localisation of food production, present decrease in agricultural jobs, contribute to empowerment, recognise the negative environmental impacts of promote food security, conserve soil quality and structure, and contribute to biodiversity. Developing sustainable agriculture is a monoculture, develop conservation agriculture necessary part of creating a sustainable society.

and permaculture production, require responsible producers to be accountable to local customers, ban Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) that kill biodiversity and producer resilience.

The early adoption of a low carbon growth path can create competitive advantages for countries taking cognisance of the effects of climate change and environmental pollution. Hence the need for a Low Carbon vision in South Africa is needed to inform a revised climate change white paper. The White Paper on Climate Change presents the South African governments vision for an effective climate change response.

The vision of a new sustainable development paradigm should involve and secure buy-in of all relevant local stakeholders, recognise and deal with current threats, and articulate an alternative development path. Governments new Climate Change Response White Paper does not adequately confront the need for a low carbon agricultural sector. Agricultural development strategies should promote the localisation of food production, recognise the negative environmental impacts of monoculture, develop conservation agriculture and permaculture production, require responsible producers to be accountable to local customers, ban Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) that kill biodiversity and producer resilience, and last but not least secure land for small scale agriculture.

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(UNIVERSITY OF FORT HARE)

AgRARIANISATION OR DE-AgRARIANISATION IN EASTERN CAPE? IMPLICATIONS TO EMPLOYMENT CREATION IN THE AgRICULTURAL SECTOR BY CLIFFORD MABHENA PHD
There are a number of reasons why deagrarianisation (the move away from agricultural activities) is happening in the rural Eastern Cape. One is the flight of human capital to the urban centres leaving the old aged and the sick in rural areas. This flight of human capital is due to the lack of employment opportunities and income generation related activities in rural areas. In addition, farming has not been ingrained in the way of life of the youth of today and has been viewed as a job for elders and the uneducated. Numerous grants given to rural households have also slowed down agricultural activity in communal areas. It is hoped that setting up non-agrarian industries can help retain people in the rural areas and uplift the economies of these areas. Cooperatives and other group-related activities might salvage the situation if properly planned and managed. Agricultural development is important in the Eastern Cape since there are fertile soils and in the past it has contributed to the economy of the country through the export of wool and other livestock related products.

CONCLUSION
In conclusion, the bare grounds of many communal areas are a strong indicator that the majority of rural dwellers have abandoned agriculture as a means of livelihood. This is due to the migration of the able-bodied people to urban centres, failure of the new dispensation to provide sound policies on agricultural development, and disincentives in form of social grants. In addition, agriculture has been marginalised in policy frameworks where there is no clear emphasis on job creation based on agriculture. The National Development Plan: Vision for 2030 does not clearly outline how jobs can be created in the agricultural sector except that it will put money into irrigation. The issue of tenure security is critical, as failure of the state to grant people secure tenure results in a low interest in agriculture. If the new green paper on land reform is translated into action, there is a possibility that rural dwellers could engage in meaningful agricultural development. It is important for the state to revitalise extension services in rural areas and to educate the youth that employment can be generated from farming much like it is in other industries. Industries alone cannot absorb all the out-of-school youth and hence the need to rethink agriculture as a vehicle of job creation in the Eastern Cape. (For more information refer to the presentations uploaded on Afesis-corplan website: www.afesis.org.za) Notes: Artwell Chivhinges and Dr Clifford Mabhenas presentations are also detailed as separate articles in this edition of The Transformer. See Mulugheta Ghebreslassie Araia presentation www.afesis.org.za

References: Bonti Ankomah, S, 2001. Addressing Food Security in South Africa. Pretoria: The National Institute for Economic Policy Department of Agriculture. 2002. The Integrated Food Strategy for South Africa. Pretoria: Department of Agriculture.

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afesis-CorPLans 1st Quarterly seminar

TITLE The future of South Africas Provinces dATE Check on the website www.afesis.org.za TIME 08:00 - 14:00
Image by kleinz

VENUE Osner Hotel

Please email lashiola@afesis.org.za / penelope@afesis.org.za or call 043 743 3830 to confirm your attendance Visit our website www.afesis.org.za for more information www.facebook.com/afesis.corplan

THIS PUBLICATION IS SPONSORED BY THE FORD FOUNDATION