* BULLETIN : 1
Ocober 2007

Report on the Swaziland expedition/ South Africa-Zambia exchange Visit to Mbabane 14/09/2007 – 17/09/2007

The exchange visit took place in Mbabane as from the 14th to the 17th of September 2007. The visiting team consisted of

Evelyn Benakane: Federation of the rural and the Urban poor
One staff member from People’s Process on Housing and Poverty and two Slum dwellers from the Zambia Homeless and Poor People’s Federation, Chola Bwalya and Agness Munyinda.

Aim of the exchange visit:

To main purpose of the visit was mobilize Swazi informal settlement

dwellers to form housing saving schemes with an aim of building a strong solidarity amongst the informal settlement dwellers that can enable them to work in partnership with Mbabane City Council and Government.

The visit was also aimed at sharing experiences between slum dwellers in the SDI network with informal settlement dwellers in Mbabane in as far as slum upgrading is concerned: We had also hoped that we could also do demarcations ,participate in making layout plans or any technical aspect in slum upgrading.

Meetings in Mbabane

On Friday17/09/2007, a brainstorming meeting between the SDI delegation and Mbabane Council official was held around 16h00 at the Council offices in Mbabane. Present in the meeting from the Council was, Pheshaya Gumedze- Director Public works, Benedict Gamedze- Urban Development Project Coordinator, Fikisile Dlamini- Director Planning,Banney Magagula- Community Laison Officer and a consultant Dumisile Shabangu.

The purpose of this meeting was to discuss on how the exchange visit will be undertaken as well as sharing background information on the slum upgrading process the Council was currently working on and the role SDI could play in the slum upgrading process. The meeting started with Mbabane City Council giving background information on Swazi national demographics and Mbabane demographics. The Council indicated that about 60% of the urban population resided in informal settlements a situation that Local authorities was grappling to cope with. In trying to address the rapid urbanization process the Mbabane City Council in partnership with the Cities alliance had began a slum upgrading process that was aimed at ensuring that Swaziland could actually become a city without slums. They also indicated that the Mbabane city Council had done developmental work plans and layouts through consultants and about 9 informal settlements had already been upgraded in line with the consultant’s work plans. 8 settlements were remaining and from the experience in the first phase the Council had learnt that it was crucial that the community be involved in the process from the onset to completion. The Council also indicated that the slum upgrading process only addressed infrastructure challenges only, i.e. water, electricity, roads and sewer while housing had not been tackled. Dumisile Shabangu who was the consultant in the first pilot phase also indicated that in the next upgrading project, there was however commitment from financial institutions like African union for Housing Finance and the Swaziland Building Society to tailo -make a finance mechanism that could work for the poor or informal settlements dwellers.

After the Council and the Consultant had given the brief background information on the Slum upgrading process in Mbabane, Community members from SouthAfrica and Zambia from the SDI network were given an opportunity to explain to the Council Officials what SDI is all about and their experiences in their respective countries. Evelyn Benekane opened for the SDI delegation by giving a brief introduction on what SDI all about. She indicated that SDI is a network of slum dweller federations involved in savings mobilization as a strategy to build a strong solidarity amongst the poor to enable them to address challenges they face in their daily lives. The other federations also reemphasized the fact that, key in the SDI’s strategy, is that poor people come together through what is popularly known as daily savings. In each and every country SDI is active, poor homeless people are encouraged to save money on daily basis as way of creating solidarity, trust and unity amongst the poor themselves. The strategy was bone out of the realization that poor people could do better when they come together and address their rural or urban challenges from a position of strength. Years of experience within poor communities had also shown that claim making only would not yield any positive change in poor people’s lives. Whilst savings were a key component of any federations process, there are also various components federation members were involved and these include but not limited to the following, exchanges, enumerations, health, urban poor funds and land negotiations.

After the SDI delegation had presented there was keen interest amongst the officials who wanted to understand more about SDI. The following were some of the questions that were asked and answers given
How is SDI Structured?
SDI is a horizontal network of Slum dwellers governed by Council of federations with a secretariat in Capetown. Each federation sends three representatives to Council Of federations; the Council of federations makes key decisions pertaining the work of SDI. Linked to the Council of federations are professionals who play a supportive role rather than a decision making role.
How do you ensure that group members repay their loans?

Federations manage to ensure their members are able to repay their loans through ensuring that all the members are involved in the repayment system, ie the loan repayment period, weekly/ monthly repayments and the interest rates. The federation repayment system allows beneficiaries to repay in a flexible way through allowing both weekly and monthly installments since the majority of poor people have no any basic monthly salary to talk about. Weekly repayments help the poorest members of the group repay whenever they have some money from their informal income generation activities. It is through such kind of mechanism devised by the poor that enable the federations’ loans system to work.

How do handle different interests in your savings group, the land less, landlord and tenants. All federations in the SDI network are composed of different groups of people, “landlords”, tenants and the landless who however share one common challenge, poverty. As the federation slogan goes, “we build people and build houses”, members are mobilized to understand that it is important for poor people to set aside their differences and pursue a single agenda.
After the question and answer session the meeting went on to discuss the programme for the exchange. The Council indicated that Saturday was going to be reserved for just touring since Saturday was a difficult day to meet the communities. Community meetings were therefore planned for Sunday which obviously made Sunday the busiest day of the delegation. Having heard that the Council was doing slum upgrading, the SDI delegation felt that they could actually be helpful in doing mapping, land demarcations and mapping in the communities the Council was working on since some of the federation members in the SDI delegation have had vast technical experience which could actually make the work of the Council easier as the communities will be trained by their counterparts.

The meeting ended with the council indicating that they were happy that SDI is keen to work with informal settlement dwellers in Mbabane. The Council was very happy and its happy to support the formation of saving groups as it would make the work of the Council easier and actually benefit the poor in Mbabane. Council Officials were also excited and very optimistic on the possibilities of working with organized communities in the slum upgrading process.

Saturday 15/09/07: Mbabane Community tours.
Suturday, 15/09/2007 was scheduled for SDI team to participate in community tours to familiarize ourselves with the slum upgrading process in Mbabane.

The first community we visited was Malagwane. According to the residents Malagwane became a settlement or a community in 1820 when it was established as a homestead/Chiefdom called Malagwane, named after a hill within the area. The community expanded as people moved from the rural areas to look for employment in the town. People settled in Malagwane as it was close to their working place and could easily build any type of structure that was within their means. The majority of the residents settled in Malagwane through the permission of the Chief either through paying 40 Rands to the chief‘s representative or through surrendering a beast traditionally known as ‘ukukhonta’. As the city grew the department of Housing eventually extended the boundaries of Mbabane in the 1980s to accommodate the city‘s developmental needs thus resulting in Malagwane being incorporated under the boundaries of Mbabane city Council. Upon being incorporated under the council it meant that the residents had to abide with Council by laws and thus the Council banned any further permanent housing development to allow proper planning for the entire settlement. The decision, though motivated by goodwill, seems to have created confusion and frustration among some residents who want to construct their own houses. The issue of paying rates seems to be a thorn in the flesh for some residents as they would rather do without having to pay rates to the Council. Some of course have genuine fears since they cannot afford paying rates but some are resisting the process as they do not understand the ultimate benefits of the upgrading process. The other problem creating discontent amongst the residents is the fact that the building ban has taken too long to be lifted since being effected in the 1990s. The community leaders also indicated that the upgrading process was initially scheduled to take place in one year but has taken more than ten years.
Despite the project taking too long to take off, it is however of striking importance to note that from the Malagwane community leaders are willing and ready to embark on the slum upgrading process. The leadership seems to be very organized, the Community managed to organize itself to put roads in their community as well as working with Council to bring water in their community. It was also very interesting to note that the community leaders exhibited high levels of technical knowledge as to how the upgrading process was going to take place. The community leaders also expressed strong keenness to start savings groups in their area to ensure that residents are organized to start the upgrading process as well actually building houses.

Mangwaneni visit.
After the Malagwane community tour we proceeded to Mangwaneni settlement. Mangwaneni is both planned and unplanned. The planned section of the community was a relocation exercise done by the government of Swaziland after dislocating people through a highway project. The government committed itself and the African Development Bank to build houses for the families which were removed from the land that was needed for the highway. In line with this commitment, the Swazi government and bank built houses in Mangwaneni for the affected families, and some families are however still not accommodated. We were also made to understand that while more than half of the people who were affected by the highway project have been accommodated the process is however riddled with many complication and confusions. Up until now some of the families are still accommodated in hotels and those who have been given houses are finding problems with paying for the water, electricity and rates. The residents we talked to in Mangwaneni also indicated that a significant number of people in the area were not happy with the way the relocation exercise was being done; they felt there was no consultation and openness in the way the whole exercise was being executed.

Sidwashini
Sidwashini is an area that is also along the controversial highway. It is also one of the 8 informal areas that are scheduled to be upgraded. The fact that it is along the highway creates enormous problems in as far as the upgrading process in concerned. A significant number of the residents in this informal settlement are very suspicious of any projects, they feel cheated for not having been consulted and compensated over the highway project. The residents are both suspicious of the Council and the government making the upgrading process a mammoth task to implement in Sidwashini as according to Dumisile Shabangu.

COMMUNITY MEETINGS SUNDAY 16/09/07

Sounday was a very busy day for us, a total of 4 meetings were scheduled for us. The first meeting started at 07:30 at Mangwaneni primary school. Despite being an early morning on a Sunday, the meeting was well attended an indication of the excitement and interests our visit had generated in the community. The majority of the attendants, who were predominantly women, which was very good for us, thronged the meeting venue as early as 06:30. The meeting started with open remarks from the Mbabane city Council Community Liaison Offer Banny Magagula. Mr Magaglua thanked the residents for coming out in their large numbers to attend the meeting with SDI visitors. In his remarks he indicated that the main purpose of the meeting was to share ideas and discuss how to develop Mangwaneni as well talking about the pending slum upgrading process in all the informal settlements. He also indicated that the SDI delegation was composed of people who were also from informal settlements, who are, just like them, were grappling with the same challenges they were facing. After his remarks the SDI delegation was given the oportunity to explain what they were doing in their respective countries.

First to speak was Benekane who started by introducing the delegation and went on to explain that she comes from a community called Joe Slovo which was once a big slum but was now a flourishing planned settlement developed by the poor. Through savings herself and other members in the Federation of the Rural and Urban poor have managed to build over 12 000 houses and had also managed to put infrastructure like roads, water and sewer in the land they have acquired. She also indicated that poor people in South Africa as well as in many other countries in Africa had realized that unless poor people mobilize their own resources such as money, no one else would come to their rescue. To mobilize their own resources they agreed to save money on daily basis through housing saving schemes and these savings schemes grew and expanded to form national federations. Each and every federation saves money to help one another in times of crisis as well as for infrastructure and housing development.

Upon mobilizing their own resources federations start engaging their local authorities and government for support. Besides daily savings, there are also other components that federations are involved in i.e. exchanges, mapping and enumerations, demarcations and surveys, land negotiations as well as skills training. The Zambian federation members also gave their own experiences in Zambia. The Zambia federation also collaborated with Benekane in explaining why it was very important for poor people especially informal settlement to come together to save money. In Zambia , Chola said, the federation had mobilized over 30 000 members to join the Zambia Homeless and Poor People’s federation and had mobilized about us$25 000 towards their urban poor fund. The urban poor fund is the money they would use for their infrastructure and house development and they also use the fund to attract resources from government and other well wishers. An equivalent of us $30 000 had also been saved at national level towards the income generation, emergencies and for general members’ needs.

After the sdi presentation the following questions and aswers were given:

How do you start a savings group?
Answer: For a saving scheme to function you need three treasurers who would record and keep the monies that people save. Treasurers will also be assisted by collectors who will on daliy basis move around the community collecting money for savings. The savings funds should be banked immediately when its reasonable enough to be banked. Whilst people are encouraged to bank money, the main purpose of saving is not to just bank money but to use the money saved to help one another. The meeting was told that experience in Zambia had indicated that some people preferred just banking money without withdrawing when in actual fact the money people save is meant to assist group members whenever they needed help.

Question: Is it compulsory for community leaders to become the leaders of the
Saving scheme.

Answer: anyone chosen by the members can be leader regardless of the fact that whether one is a community leader or not. It is not compulsory that the saving scheme treasurers or leadership should be composed of people who are community leaders.

Besides questions, some people also commented on what the SDI delegation had presented. Most of the comments expressed willingness to start savings Schemes immediately and wanted to know where they could get assistance with starting savings schemes. Residents were informed they could just start saving their money but should carefully record it in ordinary exercise books until such a time that savings booklets for Swaziland can be printed locally. The meeting ended on a high note with people expressing their excitement to start savings group.

Malagwane Community meeting.

Banny Magagula started by apologizing for attending the meeting late as we had been heldup in our previous meeting. He also introduced the SDI delegation and indicated that our delegation was composed of people who are from informal settlements and were in Swaziland to share their experiences on how in their respective countries were solving their own challenges. Upon being given the platform the SDI delegation explained why it was important for poor people to come together through savings. The team went on to explain how savings schemes are formed through choosing treasurers and collectors to manage their savings. The treasurers were responsible for keeping the money, banking as well as giving loans to deserving federation members. Saving schemes generally choose a name for their saving scheme and are encouraged to save money daily and meet at least once in a week. It was through savings mobilization that communities in the SDI network were able to negotiate for land , put infrastructure and build houses in their own countries. The Zambians shared with the residents how they had successfully managed to secure land for 500 of their members as well developing their own land. Evelyne also shared her experience from Joe Slovo where they had managed to upgrade a community over of 2050 informal dwellers. She emphasized that it was the federation members who had fought very had to ensure that they put the infrastructure in their land as well as constructing their own houses. She further explained that in Joe Slovo it was poor people who had done all the technical drawings, mapping and demarcations with of course help from the professionals.

Just like the previous meeting, people asked questions and passed comments. Questions that were asked were manly on how people could start savings, leadership and whether there was need for the federation. The residents were advised on how to start a saving scheme and agreed that they should convene the following Saturday so as to choose treasurers. On the issue of registration, the SDI delegation indicated that the majority of federations in the SDI network were not registered but they were however free to register if it was compulsory in Swaziland to register. Residents were however cautioned that registration could also mean paying tax among many other requirements that could prove costly and difficult for poor people to handle and grapple with.

SIDWASHINI COMMUNITY MEETING

The meeting in Sidwashini was attended by over 250 residents both from the informal settlement and the planned section of the community. By virtue of this meeting being a mixed group it meant that this meeting would be a difficult one. Amongst the people who came were people who had specifically came to raise their complaints and grievances to the Council over the highway project and the pending upgrading process. On arrival to the venue we almost thought we were at wrong place judging from the number and quality of cars that were parked at the venue. As usual the meeting started with Community Liaison Officer Banny Magagula introducing the SDI delegation and making opening remarks. In his opening remarks he indicated that the SDI delegation was composed of people who were coming from unplanned settlements just like some of them who were in the meeting.

The SDI delegation explained that the main purpose of their visit was to mobilize poor people to come together to address their challenges. The SDI delegation further explained that poor people across the world had realized that it was important for them to mobilize their own resources to help one another during crises such as bereavement, sicknesses as well as for income generation purposes. After the SDI’s presentation the residents expressed excitement to start saving groups in Sidwashini. They also raised a lot of questions which were directed to the Council. The residents wanted to know when the building ban will be lifted; some residents also expressed disappointment of the planned slum upgrading project and accused the Council of playing hide and seek with them. The residents were given the contact details for Dumisile Shabangu for assistance in as far as starting saving scheme.

Mahwalala Meeting

The Mhwalala meeting was the last of our meetings. Approximately 70 residents attended the meeting and were very keen to immediately start a savings scheme had it not been the limitation of time. Mahwalala exists in the ourtskirts of Mbabane city and its more peri urban than urban. The majority of the residents of the community seem to depend on subsistence farming; they grow crops and rear cattle for survival. As usual, the SDI delagation was given an opportunity to explain who they are and the purpose of coming to Swaziland. They indicated to the residents that their mission was invite informal settlement dwellers to come together and start saving so as to improve and develop their own lives. The residents were also informed that it was very important that they as poor people should organize themselves and speak with one voice in tackling any problems they are encountering in their communities.

Upon finishing the presentation the residents were given time to ask questions on what the delegation had presented. One resident wanted a model constitution on which they would base their own constitution and another resident wanted t find out if SDI would give financial assistance to savings group. The residents were informed that there wasn’t any model constitution which savings schemes use, each and every savings scheme will be at liberty to make their own constitution if they deem it necessary. The residents were also informed that SDI can assist with exchanges to go and learn more about community led processes in other African countries. Assistance either technical or financial would also come if they would follow SDI rituals. A lot of other questions and comments that were asked were directed at the Community Liaison Officer. Key amongst the questions/ grievance the residents had was the issue of the building ban and the fear of not affording rates upon their settlement being upgraded. The meeting ended with the residents agreeing that they would meet the following Sunday to form a savings scheme.

Feedback by the visiting team

The delegation felt humbled by the hospitality given by both the community members and the Mbabane City Council officials. The team was also impressed by the levels of understanding and motivation exhibited by the City officials especially the Community liaison Officer and the Director of Planning. Both officials spent time with the delegation beyond the call of duty an indication of their commitment and dedication in ensuring that community members are organized and work in partnership with the Council. It also became clear in the course of the exchange that Mbabane city had potential to be become a learning centre for a community led slum upgrading process in Swaziland. The commitment and understanding demonstrated by the City Officials gave us confidence that the upcoming slum upgrading project could be successful. In our discussions with the officials it was clear that they understand the importance of working with communities in executing developmental projects. With the Council being supportive there is therefore an urgent need for savings schemes to be formed to ensure effective community participation in the pending upgrading process.

Overall, the SDI delegation felt that the exchange was very fruitful in the sense that the team managed to make awareness about the federation in all the informal settlements that are earmarked for the immediate upgrading process, residents in the said settlements had also embraced the idea of starting savings schemes and were keen to start. Whilst the team felt that awareness had been made, it also felt that the exchange was rather too short and congested to allow the team to actually help the residents to start savings scheme. The exchange was also ill-timed as it was scheduled for the weekend only. The team arrived on a Friday and left on a Monday. There wasn’t enough time to make follow-ups to form saving schemes as community meetings were only lined up for Sunday only. The team also felt that it was also impossible and inappropriate to select a task team to spearhead the mobilization process based on meeting people for less than an hour.

Recommendations for SDI
There is an urgent need for the communities in the informal settlements scheduled for upgrading to be exposed to other SDI countries.
We recommend, at this point, that it is more appropriate to take the communities outside so that they can internalize the rituals through exposure. It would also be ideal if this exposure can lead to more practical experiences, such as a housing development process, slum upgrading or any other Federation exercise. The Zambian housing building process in Kalulushi has gained momentum, and thus, the team feel it is ideal to invite a team from Swaziland to witness and participate in a community led housing development process in Zambia. In light of the pending slum upgrading project we also suggest that the exposure visits could also involve one person from Mbabane City Council and possibly the Consultant (Dumisile Shabangu) who has been working with the communities in the previous slum upgrading projects in Mbabane. The consultant could possibly be tasked to provide professional support to the communities until such a time the support partner can be formalized. It is also worth mentioning that the team felt that the consultant seems to have a thorough understanding and appreciation of community led approaches and thus we recommend that she provides the professional support in the interim while a long term plan is being sought.
Summary of recommendations

Regular International exchanges involving Swaziland. For continuity purposes we recommend that at least one exchange visit should take place in a month involving South Africa, Zambia and Swaziland.
We recommend a Swaziland team to travel to Zambia before the end of October. The team will be exposed to a general federation process and the construction process in Kalulushi.
There is need for a week long follow-up visit in Mbabane either in November or December. In the event that international exchanges cannot be more regular this follow-up meeting will definitely be necessary lest the progress made will be reversed. The main purpose of the meeting would be to actually assist the community members to actually start savings schemes. At least 100 savings booklets would be needed as sample. Samples of the urban poor booklets should also be carried.
To cut on costs, we recommend that accommodation should be arranged with community members. For transport we recommend that a minibus be hired for the entire exchange period to avoid inconveniencing the City officials. Whilst for this visit, the SDI team was provided with a minibus for the three days, it is unlikely that the Council will be able to assist with transport for Seven days.