Mgwenyana project
Traditional leadership/CART initiative
2nd Report
March 22nd2010
Contents
Acknowledgements
Introduction
Methodology
Ethics and Bias
Kunduna village
Water system
School
Chicken farm
Mputshane village
Water system
The agricultural project
Masameni village
Mngazi college
Agricultural project
Clinic
Mahkuzani village
School
Conclusion
Centre for Appropriate Rural Technology.
P.O. Box 64.
Port St. Johns.
5120.
South Africa.
Phone (+27) 047 564 1459
Fax (+27) 047 564 1459
Mobile (+27) 072 211 7294
Author David Phillips, MSc
Water Management
Acknowledgements
Many thanks go to Vuyani Mgcotyelwa who has assisted good-naturedly with the translation of interviewsand informal discussions between Xhosa and English with great diligence and provided detailed insight to the social situation within the Mngazi traditional leadership region.
Many thanks go to the Saville Foundation for their financial assistance over the last few years and to the many people who have physically and financially contributed to the development of the CART project.
Introduction
This report details the findings ofshort field interviews with the headmen or deputy headman of the four villages belonging to the Mngazi traditional council. The data are still very much at a preliminarylevel contributing more to a greater topographical understandingand rapport buildingwith the villages than adetailed study of theirsocial nuances. It does not in any way purport to be anin depth baselinesurvey providing information for developmental decisions.It does however describe social observations noted by the author during the interview process and “guided” tours with the headmen.
Methodology
A simple semi-structured, open-ended qualitative interview approach was thought appropriate at this stage of the developmental process and for all interviews personal notes only were made. Interviews were conducted with the following people:
- Deputy headman Mr P Goja of Kunduna village
- Headman Mr Qunwuana of Mputshane village
- Deputy headman Mr Peter Masameni village
- Deputy headman Mr Puzi Mahkuzani village
Ethics and Bias
The purpose of the research was fully disclosed to the community leaders from inception to ensure complete transparency and mutual co-operation towards the purpose of the interview.
The language, gender and cultural issues were also discussed prior to arrival to provide knowledge and awareness of sensitiveissues and to ensure that no false hopes or promises where given or implied for the community during the talk.
Careful consideration was given to the use of a translator and the appropriateness of theindividual when talking to members of the community. This is to ensure that the translator’s personal thoughts, opinions and bias could not be applied to achieve positive or negative outcomes from the research and the results thereof.
Kunduna village
The headman expressed the view that water is a big problem for his community. They describe their water as dirty, particularly when it rains and also the distance between taps is too great. They have only 3 taps in the village so each tap feeds a high proportion of the population.
A major concern is the local school; the buildings are in various states of disrepair particularly, the ones traditionally built. Apparently local builders are helping but they feel the traditional construction methods are not strong enough.
The lack of safe toilets is a great concern to the people. Open defecation is the standard practice in the village with its associated health and hygiene issues that the community want to address.
Local enterprise apparently consists only of a small shop and a planned small poultry farm which is being created by a group of people in the community. The skills in the village are described as limited,some people have brick-laying skillsand it is believed that most people know how to construct a roof. It was also stated that no food growing skills or knowledge exist within the community.
Water system
With only 3 taps in the village there can be quite a distance for some people to walk for water. It is said that the municipality states that having to travel a maximum of 200m is acceptable to collect water. Whether this criterion has been met will be identified when more detailed surveying is undertaken.
It would seem thatnone of the tap areas have an apron to remove unused water. Many taps have pooled water around them which can be anobvious cause of water related health issues.
School
On visiting the school the extent of the school building problems can be better appreciated. All buildings are in some form of disrepair or are incomplete. There is one corrugated steel clad classroom that offers only basic protection from the weather. There appears to be no dooron the cut-out entrance with the cutting being done to a poor standard leaving extremely sharp edges around the doorway. This has created a serious slice hazard to the children. The school covers grades R to 4.
A building made from, what appears to be, concrete block has no rendering on the outer walls leaving it susceptible to weather damage and therefore affecting the life of the building.
There is a VIP latrine complex of 4 toilets outside the fenced area of the school that seems to be in reasonable condition. These are for the use of the teachers only and the children have to use the local bush as a toilet.
There are three rainwater harvesting (RWH) tanks on site although currently only one tank is set up for use. The tank foundation is poor causing subsidence and the tank to lean. At the time of the visit water was in the tank and a bowl is made available for hand washing but this raises obvious concerns about regular hand washing and the availability of water to do so during the dry season.
The teachers mentioned that there is no playing field for the children within the fenced area and they feel this is important for them.
Chicken farm
The chicken farmer group obtained a grantfrom the government department ECDC for a chicken house to be built by a sub-contract company.This is a steel fabrication with feed and water points for the chickens stationed along its entire length. The group is waiting for the first batch of chickens as well as the animal husbandry lessons necessary to farm the chickens in a humane way but this cannot take place until R2,500 is paid to the Municipal water authority for a water supply and connection.
It is somewhat surprising that RWH is not used given the large surface area of the roof and the already hard pressed demand on the community water system. This may be because the feed tank is placed above the roof level however a simple pump could be used to move the water from RWH tanks.
It is yet to be established who exactly benefits from the products and proceeds of this project and to what extent the group are communicating with the various partners to ensure the project is actually completed.
Mputshane village
Expectedly,the headman expressed the same views regarding the water situation. They also describe their water as dirty, particularly when it rains.Even though they have 12 taps in the village there is still a concern about the distances some users have to travel to get water and would like to see a tap in every home.
The sanitation situation and concerns are the same as the previous village.
Parts of the village have not been connected by road. When people in this area are sick they have to transported by wheelbarrow to the road and then take a taxi. They expressed a desire to see the road system joined to this part of the community as well as the creation of a mobile clinical service that can regularly attend the village.
There is a community agricultural project that was operating until the water pump failed. Since that time no work has been done and the fields have been left open for cattle to freely graze. The community would like help to get the pump repaired so crop growing can begin again.
A small number of people have carpentry and brick-laying skills. The only business in the community is a small shop.
The football pitch is important to the men. They would like the field to be properly levelled and they have tried to do this but failed due to the size of the stones apparently.
Water system
The water was viewed at the tap and was found to be cloudy even though there has not been any rain for at least a week. This indicatesthe likelihood of design errors,maintenance shortcomings or both for the system.
The water is not taken directly from the spring source. It is collected lower down the mountain at a small waterfall area which has had a dam constructed to create a small reservoir. There is a connecting pipe with some kind of basic filter box linking into storage reservoirs lower down the mountain where the water is apparently chlorinated. The water in the small reservoir is turbid.
The spring source is known but when visited it seems to be just one of the sources of water feeding the waterfall. Investigation is required to see what spring protection can be built into these sources to reduce the potential for contamination.
The agricultural project
There is a reasonable amount of land available for crop production here. There is an irrigation system elevated approximately 2.5 metres off the ground that runs the length of the area. The integrating pipe work runs underground from a main connection point near the river to the centre of the field and is then teed off to all the watering points.The wisdom of using this kind of irrigation system is questionable given the high temperatures in the area and the potential for great amounts of evaporation.
The commitment to food production seems limited since there are no obvious attempts to grow produce, even near the river bank, since the pump failure. It was reported that a range of produce was grown there including potatoes, cabbage, tomatoes, spinach and butternut squash.
Masameni village
Similar areas of concern were mentioned as in the previous two villages: no toilets and the often unreliable and unclean water system. The deputy headman described other problems such as a lack of fencing around their gardens preventing food production. He also expressed the concern over a lack of jobs in the village which he believes leads to alcohol and drug abuse by the youth.
There is no business enterprise within the village. There is a desire to start a poultry farm by some members of the community and they particularly feel a need to have a community shop in the headman’s part of the village but view their lack of money as a barrier to this.
There are brick layers and roofers but there is a general view that most are not well trained. Any attempts to produce food for sale have failed due to an apparent lack of agrarian skills.
The deputy headman expressed a view that the youth would be interested in learning new skills without the need for pay because it would enable them to gain work. He also expressed a view that any skill training programme should be open to women too.
MngaziCollege
MngaziCollege is an educational resource that is currently managed and run by the King Sabata Dalindyebo further education and training institution. Mngazi chief Michael worked hard to create an educational facilitythat would provide basic life skillstraining for the people who very often have only a basic education. It has the following facilities:
- Fully equipped carpentry workshop
- 7 classrooms
- 1 Sewing machine classroom
- Fully equipped computer room
- Large meeting room.
The college currently only runs a Business Administration course with very few people from surrounding areas attending. The failure to provide appropriate and relevant educational opportunities for the majority of the local population is causing dissatisfaction amongst the community.
Regardless, the college is providing a service and the intention is to utilise resources that are currently not being used. This makes available the workshop full time, the sewing machine classroom for 4 days a week and 2 classrooms full time. All facilities are available after 3pm for afternoon and evening classes.
Agricultural project
The Pandani agricultural project was established withgovernment help to provide jobs and education through the production of medicinal herbs. There is approximately four hectares of land available as well as buildings to support the training process. It is located alongside the MngaziRiverwhich provides water all year round for crop irrigation.
Clinic
There is a clinic located within this village that serves many communities. No contact as yet has been made to establish what community work is done or can be undertaken in the future in co-operation with the project.
Mahkuzani village
Again a lack of clean water, toilets and jobs are the main concern, however, in this village, water has the greatest importance because they are not connected to the gravity fed water system as the other villages are. The deputy headman described that some homes are having problems getting electricity connected and there are homes that do not have any connection to a road.
There is no business enterprise at all in the village. There was a poultry business but due to a lack of knowledge and funding it failed after the chickens died from disease. He stated that he felt there would be interest amongst the people to start an agricultural project for which land could be made available.
Local skills include brick layers, builders, roofers and carpenters who are employed by businesses from outside the community. It is believed their skills are good and they could be used to help train other’s in the community.
School
The deputy headman stated that the school was in need of help. The infrastructure consists of one long building that has three classrooms, one of which acts as a kitchen, an office for the teachers as well as a classroom. The floors in each classroom are uneven and made the traditional way from cow dung. Attempts have been made to create a school garden but little or no help has been given by the parents to support this in the way of constructing a protective fence to prevent animals eating the produce.
The school has four VIP latrines with a partition for teachers and children. When the toilets were visited however, the children’s toilets were locked. When opened they appeared to have been unused for some time. I was told that the children refuse to use them because of the fear of snake attack when walking through the bush to access them. Because of this situation open defecationis accepted and takes place. No attempt has been made to clear the area for the children.
Conclusion
The diverse social problems within the area of this initiative are not untypical of the many rural communities of South Africabut what is apparent is the recognition by the traditional leadership that things must now change, that socially it is no longer acceptable for people to be without clean water, sanitation and a safe home. Additionally there seems a strong desire within the community itself for change, not just for their own lives but particularly for the youth in the community.
A strong commitment has been made from the local ward councillor to work closely with all the stakeholders in this initiative and substantial educational assets are being made available from within the areato help facilitate this community change.
We believe that these are important ingredients for a successful developmentinitiative but this report only provides a brief snap shot of the social issues and capacity at Mgwenyana. Much work and ultimately action within the community is required to change the lives of each individual through the processes of responsible social leadership, community participation and stakeholderpartnerships that arean important prerequisite for sustainable positive change.