Return/Retourner/VolverWORLD CLASS CITIES FOR ALL (WCCA) CAMPAIGN
MEETING with JOBURG MUNICIPALITY
22 November 2007
Attendance: Pat Horn (StreetNet International)
Cheche Selepe (WCCA media)
Davd Morake (SAMWU national office)
Enock Sibiya (SAMWU Gauteng)
Stan Chokoe (IMATU Gauteng)
Rosy Mashimbye (CUP – Coalition of Urban Poor)
Aubrey Mposula (NASC – National Alliance of Street Children)
Sam Khasibe (AFITO – African Federation of Informal Traders Orgs)
JOBURG: Philip Harrison (Exec Director: Dev. Planning & Urban Management)
Rashid Seedat (Head of Central Strategy Unit in Office of Mayor)
Graeme Gotz (Senior Specialist in Office of Mayor)
Yael Horowitz (Manager f Inner City Charter Development Process)
Yondela Silimela (Director Strategic
Support in Office of P. Harrison)
Apologies: Sibongile Mazibuko (Executive Director: 2010)
Jason Ngobeni (Exec Director: Economic Development)
Introduction of delegations
Delegations of both sides
introduced themselves and their portfolios (in the case of the Joburg
City) and their concerns towards 2010 (in the case of the WCCA
delegation). NASC has
already engaged with the Dept. of Community Development around the plans
for street children’s sanctuaries, and this engagement is continuing
with Community Development having accepted the strategic plan that NASC
put forward as a basis for ongoing engagement.
CUP and FEDUP (Federation of Urban Poor) linked to SDI (Shack
Dwellers International) have been engaged by the national Minister of
Housing around housing alternatives for the residents of the Joe Slovo
informal housing settlement in Cape Town.
SAMWU and IMATU are concerned the relationship between their
members and the street vendors who are earning their livelihoods in the
City’s public spaces. They
want to avoid making them the enforcement agents removing informal
traders from the streets and thereby denying their livelihoods, as often
happens in preparations for high-profile international events such as the
FIFA World Cup. Since municipal workers are the city, IMATU and SAMWU
are willing to mediate in the City’s relationship with street vendors
and informal traders.
WCCA campaign purpose and objectives
StreetNet International (the
lead organization in the WCCA campaign) explained the origins of the
campaign, its launch in South Africa in preparation for the FIFA World
Cup in 2010, and its recruitment of civil society campaign partners
(including the trade union movement, street vendors’ organizations,
social movements, NGOs and CBOs concerned with marginalized groups of the
urban poor).
Progress
to date
An engagement in NEDLAC has
resulted in a 2010 NEDLAC Framework Agreement on the FIFA Soccer World
Cup, which is about to be negotiated with the FIFA LOC.
WCCA is represented in the Community Constituency component of
NEDLAC’s FIFA Task Team. The
four host cities of Cape Town, Joburg, eThekwini and Nelson Mandela Bay
were approached for preliminary meetings about the WCCA campaign, of
which this was the second, after a meeting with Cape Town on 8 November.
A meeting with the Nelson Mandela Metro is scheduled for 10th
December.
After being informed by Cape
Town about the Host Cities’ Forum chaired by the Minister of Local
Government, an approach has been made to the Minister’s office
requesting an engagement between the WCCA campaign and the host-cities
forum. Approaches have also
been made to SALGA and the SA Cities’ Network.
The following entities are part of Joburg’s preparations for the FIFA World Cup:
- Joburg Development Agency JDA
- Metro Trading Co. MTC (reports directly to Economic Development)
-
Joburg Properties Co.
Joburg officials stated that they value such approaches by Civil Society groups and assured the WCCA delegation of their commitment to ensuring that Joburg should be an inclusive African city. The intention of the 2010 office is to engage in extensive stakeholder engagement in order to build social capital to maximize the society’s engagement in the FIFA World Cup. The WCCA delegation was briefed abut the Inner City Summit and Charter Process which started in mid-2006 leading to the Summit in May 2007. A Charter Partnership Forum is in the process of being established. Stakeholders’ motivations for inclusion have been invited until end of November 2007. The Joburg delegation undertook to make all the relevant documentation available to the WCCA delegation. The WCCA delegation will study this documentation and gave consideration to whether or how this process could be merged/integrated with the engagement which the WCCA campaign in seeking with the City.
The WCCA delegation presented the WCCA demands, with a proposal for a Stakeholders’ Forum (linked to demand no.6) to serve as the basis for discussion of how to engage more systematically than a series of ad hoc bilaterals and one-off consultations, for the consideration of the Joburg City in preparation for subsequent discussions. The demands were explained but neither responded to nor discussed. The Joburg delegation will consider how these proposals could be integrated with their processes. Once they have had discussions with the relevant departments and entities of Joburg City, they will notify the WCCA campaign (via StreetNet International) of their initial responses.
Follow-up
and way forward
The Joburg City will send the following documentation to StreetNet International, who will circulate it to WCCA campaign partners including those who attended this meeting:
Joburg will co-ordinate with StreetNet International regarding the next meeting to follow up the WCCA campaign engagement. The WCCA delegation expressed the hope that this would result in active engagement during the course of 2008.