Street committees told to be more developmental in orientation
THANDISIZWE MGUDLWA I Tuesday, July 11, 2023
CAPE TOWN; South Africa – THE time has come for
the purpose and roles of Street Committees to be reviewed for our
collective revival.
In this article, we get to look at a wide variety of
perspectives from expert and community leader analysis on what needs to
be done to use this layer of leadership for effective governance.
Street Committees have the powerful potential to unlock service delivery
lock-necks.
According to the IGI Global Publishing House Street
Committees were committees created in the 1980s and were democratically
elected committees meant to cater for needs and challenges facing
community members in their respective streets or areas.
Published in Chapter: Entrenching Community (Participatory)
Governance Through Street Committees at Cato Crest, eThekwini
Municipality by Ndwakhulu Stephen Tshishonga (University of
KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa), this document seeks to illustrate the
purpose and role of Street Committees, IGI Global Publishing House,
shares some interesting thoughts on what and how Street Committees can
best serve the people.
In an abstract of the paper: this chapter explores the role
of street committees in retrenching and grounding community
participatory governance at Cato Crest.
The chapter is purposed to revitalise street committees as
street/area democratically elected and managed structures aimed at
restoring inclusive local democracy, peace, and order, especially in the
prevalence of domestic violence, crime, community disunity and
divisions, disobedient youth, and other antisocial behaviours.
The author argues that the current configuration of street
committees as partisan structures compromises their fundamental purpose
of uniting people regardless of race, culture, gender, and
socio-economic class.
The chapter also found that without clear developmental
roles, street committees are often highjacked to serve a party political
agenda.
In addition, the chapter is qualitative in nature when data
were collected through observation and face-to-face interviews with
street committees at Cato Crest.
The empirical data was also enriched by secondary sources in the form of journal papers, books, and government reports.
According to the Vukukhanye Community Upliftment
Initiatives the primary objective of Street Committees is to involve the
community of a particular area in creating a happy, peaceful and
productive environment by encouraging community members to take a
greater interest in, and responsibility for, their community.
The success of Street Committees hinges on community
involvement and effective communication with local government
departments, including, police, social welfare, infrastructure services
etc.
Ivan Ntsasa Mngqibisa in the role of street committees in
the governance of informal settlements: a case study from Waterworks
Township, Grabouw, published by the University of Cape Town.
The abstract goes: Community participation has become a key
concept in research on the development and governance of
underprivileged communities.
It is on these grounds that the post-apartheid South
African government has encouraged meaningful participation between local
communities and the state, particularly through structures of local
government.
However, the role that street committees can play in the
realisation of this ideal has received little attention from either
government or academic scholars.
For this reason, this study examines the role that the
street committee in Waterworks, Grabouw, in the Western Cape plays in
community governance. It analyses data from a qualitative study which
took place between 2007 and 2008, states Mngqibisa.
“In this thesis I argue that while the street committee has
a role to play in the governance of the community, that role is limited
by their lack of power. The street committee is not a statutory body
and this hinders their ability to participate in local government
issues.
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Despite these restrictions, the street committee in
Waterworks was largely perceived by the local residents as doing their
best in addressing pertinent issues. However, there were some who
accused members of the street committee of nepotism and seeking
political patronage,” noted Mngqibisa.
Former Minister of Police, Fikile Mbalula told Members of
the National Assembly (NA) when he delivered the 2017/18 Budget Vote of
the Police Department at Parliament: “We need to close the oxygen for
criminals. Their breath should be limited. Their conception of life
should be reduced to the ordinary. Their contemplation of reality should
be reduced into nothing. This is our war cry against criminals and
criminality in the Republic of South Africa,” emphasised Mbalula.
He said street committees are very important in the fight
against crime. “We are realistic that we cannot win the fight against
crime without the involvement of civil society. The Ministry is in the
process of reviewing the Community Police Forum Policy. This will ensure
that we build strategic partnerships with the communities in our effort
to push back the frontiers of criminality,” Mbalula added.
And according to the Bonteheuwel Development Forum (BDF); A
street/block committee MUST unite around issues affecting it’s street,
block or neighbourhood and can therefore not be aligned to any political
party, neither should it be open for use or abuse by any party or
political figure.
The BDF Mission is to combat poverty, inequality and social
ills through community centered social, educational and economic
development interventions.
In 2018, 7 March, as reported by the Grocott’s Mail,
citizens from Grahamstown East took part in an exciting event at BB
Zondani Hall in Fingo Village. The South African Police Service (SAPS)
in conjunction with Makana Municipality launched the community street
committees initiative as a way to improve safety and reduce crime.
The initiative serves as a way to empower citizens and
encourage visible policing within communities that suffer from high
crime rates.
Reverend Gxaleka opened the event by emphasising the
importance of building relationships in the community. “We must build
relationships so we can speak with one voice,” he said. Speaking to the
issue of halting crime, he said, “We need people to do umsebenzi [the
work].”
Street Committees have the powerful potential to unlock
service delivery lock-necks. In all likely-hood, Street Committees
should serve more as empowerment agencies if they are to be relevant and
effective going into the future.
Street Committees should be running Feeding Scheme programmes in partnership with other stakeholders.
And Street Committees need to also look for other problems
facing residents they can solve finding help from community structures,
business community, government and other sectors to improve the lot of
the people. They should be communicators of their constituencies on
everything developmental within and outside the street/community.
Moreover, Street Committees should make use of social media
tools like Facebook pages, WhatsApp Groups for all residents, to
further inform the residents on Job and Business opportunities,
workshops, seminars and any training that takes place in the street and
community and elsewhere.
Regular meetings at community halls or other easily
accessible venues like churches or schools to engage with all residents
on matters concerning their street.
Activities for different groups in the streets must form
part of the developmental imperative of Street Committees including
sport, recreation and arts for the young and old. In this way, Street
Committees will be bringing government and service delivery closer to
the people.
NB: Mgudlwa is a freelance journalist
LINK: https://starconnectmedia.com/2023/07/street-committees-in-south-africa/
Starconnect Media
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