VAINOLA MAKAN

9. FROM INFORMATION TO KNOWLEDGE FOR ACTION IN BLIKKIESDORP

Whenever men and women are condemned to live in poverty, human rights are violated. To come together to ensure that those rights be respected is our solemn duty.1 (Joseph Wresinski)

INTRODUCTION

I am sitting in a tent on a shaky second-hand chair with members of my organisation, Right to Know Campaign (Right2Know), and members of the resident community called Blikkiesdorp, watching a documentary. Blikkiesdorp, meaning ‘tin can town’ in ,2 is named after the thousands of one-roomed tin houses which stretch bleakly, row after row, without a blade of grass in sight, on the outskirts of . The surface of the floor is sand, and the power source to screen the film comes from a neighbour’s unit. The documentary tells the story of this community, living in this emergency housing site, their struggle to be heard and to solve their housing problems. Next to me, a little boy suddenly points excitedly at the screen and screams: ‘There is Grandma Jane!’ He jumps up and runs out of the tent to tell everybody that the community leader, who he has come to know as ‘grandma’, is in a movie. This chapter tells the story of Right2Know’s journey with Blikkiesdorp and the Joint Committee, an organisational structure in which ‘grandma’ Jane is one of the leaders. Watching the documentary was one of the learning moments in our effort to stand alongside this community while they crafted solutions to their problems. The film was also used to lobby support for Blikkiesdorp’s plight and create meaningful engagement in their quest for decent housing. The chapter highlights the challenges and opportunities in crafting solidarity while supporting the community’s struggles to access political and civil rights. It hones in on a particular occasion when we used popular education methods, and raises the tensions and contradictions we experienced. I start by outlining relevant elements of the national context before describing our experience of working with the community in Blikkiesdorp. I conclude with an outline of the lessons learned. The Right2Know Campaign was established in 2010 in response to the struggle against the adoption of the Secrecy Bill in .3 The Campaign brings together a range of civil society actors, including non-governmental organisations,

A. von Kotze & S. Walters (Eds.), Forging Solidarity, 95–104. © 2017 Sense Publishers. All rights reserved.

Vainola Makan - 9789463009232 Downloaded from Brill.com09/29/2021 10:08:29AM via free access V. Makan social movements, community-based organisations, the media, coalitions and faith- based organisations, to prevent the reversal of key civil and political rights, such as access to information and open democratic governance. Right2Know (2016) constantly seeks to draw poor and working-class communities into efforts to maintain an open and transparent society. Most of the supporters of Right2Know are activists based in these communities.

Political Context The inauguration of the first democratic government in 1994 brought excitement and new hope to South Africa. However, since then, there have been increasing numbers of local service delivery . Records show that protests increased from 10 per annum in 2004 to 173 in 2012 (Hart, 2013, p. 49). There are a range of reasons for these protests, which are well articulated by Gillian Hart (2013), Michael Neocosmos (2011) and others. These authors demonstrate how the contradictions of neoliberalism play out at local levels, where local communities and politicians are left to resolve the irresolvable within the contemporary development paradigm. Poor communities bear the brunt of harsh economic conditions which are infused by legacies of colonialism, patriarchy and racial capitalism. The Bill of Rights within the new constitution underscores the values of transparency, access to information, freedom of speech and political self-expression and accountability. These are important indicators of the fundamental civil and political rights that citizens should enjoy in a democratic country. When decisions get made in the public interest, information about this should be accessible to affected communities. Unfortunately, these rights are not fully protected, and the legal system is out of reach for the majority of the population. Instead of advancing, protecting and defending these constitutional rights, government officials and politicians aggressively and sometimes violently clamp down on those activists who register their grievances through pickets and protest action. This results in a shrinking political space for citizens to express their concerns, for example around increasing electricity tariffs and lack of housing. This is the context in which Right2Know works, where we try to ensure access to vital information, guided by the intended purpose of community struggles. This is done through building meaningful partnerships.

FORGING SOLIDARITY

The model of Right2Know is based on community solidarity. As our website states, full realisation of the right to know cannot be defined by individuals, organisations or borders. Our campaign is best served where we act in

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concert and solidarity with like-minded people and organisations locally and internationally.4 The organisation works together in solidarity with communities to strengthen local struggles and advance their right to know. We are also geared to ‘defending the space to organise, challenge secrecy and gain access to information, to defend and advance the right to communicate, freedom of expression and the right to protest’. While activists pursue their struggles, they engage with learning in an organic manner and Right2Know supports that learning. The organisation is increasingly turning to popular education as a basis for its outreach work. Popular education interventions are therefore integrated into the organisational practices through monthly democratic decision-making platforms, workshop sessions and local awareness-raising efforts. Popular education material such as pamphlets, posters, flyers, community seminars, social media platforms and community radio engagements are important means for this. Right2Know values mobilising activists at community and grassroots level to achieve a society with a free flow of information; our organisation is therefore designed to function in the same way. Activists have a direct decision-making platform at the monthly provincial working group meetings where programmes of action are developed based on the contextual realities and decisions. Rubén Gaztambide-Fernández (2012, p. 54) quotes Freire, who says that: ‘True solidarity with the oppressed means fighting at their side to transform the objective reality.’ I next discuss the example of our work with the people of Blikkiesdorp.

Background to Blikkiesdorp The built Blikkiesdorp as a temporary relocation area (TRA) in 2007. It was not intended to last longer than six months, but at the time of writing (2016) it has already been around for nine years. In 2014 it was reported that there were 1700 one-roomed structures built out of tin. Given the estimation of at least 20000 people living in Blikkiesdorp, this suggests serious overcrowding. Research conducted by the Open Democracy Advice Centre (ODAC), a key partner of Right2Know, revealed an unemployment rate of 73 per cent. Blikkiesdorp has its origin in ‘forced removals’ as a result of the 2010 Soccer World Cup in South Africa (Cassiem, 2010). An array of human rights violations resulted from the World Cup, including evictions and forced removals related to infrastructure upgrades and construction (De Paula, 2014). The development of Blikkiesdorp came as a result of by-laws created for the World Cup, contained in the Special Measures Act (No. 11 of 2006). Certain key public spaces within the city were categorised as no-go areas or ‘exclusion zones’. During the World Cup, South African security forces rigorously policed these spaces and the government set up a special court for the duration of the tournament to adjudicate violations and infringements of these and other laws. In the build-up to the tournament, there

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Vainola Makan - 9789463009232 Downloaded from Brill.com09/29/2021 10:08:29AM via free access V. Makan was a significant increase in the number of poor people deported to TRAs in an attempt to ‘clean up’ the city before the international guests arrived. Hundreds of Blikkiesdorp residents claimed their relocation was due to their close proximity to , an official World Cup training ground (Haferburgm, Golka, & Selter, 2009). Blikkiesdorp was then and still is the biggest TRA in Cape Town. With more than 20000 people living in overcrowded conditions in tents and shacks, sometimes heavily policed, the Anti-Eviction Campaign and other social movements stated that Blikkiesdorp ‘seemed like a concentration camp’ (Cassiem, 2010). Years after the World Cup, residents have limited police security and feel unsafe in a situation where unemployed youth are increasingly recruited as gangsters, resulting in an escalation of crime. In addition, there are constant complaints by residents that the structures they live in are weak and leak in winter (ODAC, 2015). Very high unemployment contributes to substance abuse, gangsterism and high levels of gender-based violence. Furthermore, sanitation and water facilities are shared among four units, creating great inconvenience and discomfort for the residents (ODAC, 2015). Besides the harsh conditions already described, a survey by ODAC highlights additional issues like eye damage as a result of the sunlight reflected off the corrugated iron houses. As residents do not have the resources to get their eyes checked regularly, chronic eye problems result (ODAC, 2015). ‘We have never been ill all of our lives, but since we have come to stay here, we have developed pneumonia, asthma and chest-related illnesses’ (Cupido interview).

Challenges to Solidarity The first challenge in developing ‘community solidarity’ in Blikkiesdorp is that it is hard to talk about it as ‘a community’. There are no community facilities and a proper meeting space was only built after continuous lobbying of Cape Town city officials. Additionally, it is unsafe for women to walk outside at night as they are constantly in fear of being raped or sexually harassed. The frustration in the community is high, as the ‘temporariness’ means there is no incentive to improve the structures (ODAC, 2015). The issue of leadership has also made community solidarity difficult. The lack of continuous, legitimate leadership has prevented organisations from showing solidarity as they wanted to avoid being caught up in power struggles by different community factions. This resulted in community members being left to struggle on their own with few supportive human and information resources. Some people have suggested that certain city officials use divide-and-rule tactics, such as preferential housing allocations to leaders, which weaken the latter’s resistance. As a result, solidarity efforts in the past did not last long and were at best inconsistent.

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RIGHT2KNOW’S WORK IN BLIKKIESDORP

The struggle in Blikkiesdorp escalated when residents were told in 2015 that Cape Town International Airport planned to build a new runway and that the residents of Blikkiesdorp might have to be moved. According to the news agency GroundUp, the runway will affect up to 400000 houses, more than just Blikkiesdorp, should the project go ahead (Tilley, 2015). As a result of the runway, noise levels will increase and this could mean that a safety wall will have to be built to prevent the noise pollution and health impact on the residents. The situation presented a whole different kind of poverty, namely the poverty of information. Right2Know took on the challenge to enter into relationships with Blikkiesdorp, using assistance with access to information as a point of entry.

Building Leadership with the Joint Committee of Blikkiesdorp To respond effectively to their social and political situation, it was key to support the Joint Committee, a responsive and visionary leadership cadre, through team building. First, some members attended the Right2Know 10-day Mobilisation and Organising Leadership School, followed by a three-day workshop on designing programmes and social processes, facilitated by the Popular Education Programme. Second, ODAC hosted two leadership-development weekend sessions. These processes facilitated trust building, strengthened the Joint Committee and equipped them with skills that enabled them in their difficult task of leading the Blikkiesdorp community. Third, Right2Know organised a monthly Campaign Corner Cafe, which is a space for activists to learn through sharing and cross-pollinating ideas. These were regularly attended by the Blikkiesdorp activists. Fourth, Right2Know regularly attended meetings with the Joint Committee when they planned to shape their demands or when they wanted to do a press release. An important capacity-building process by Right2Know was training the Joint Committee on how to structure a press release and how to do their own media interviews, as they would be the media’s contact people rather than Right2Know activists or staff. Although they still make use of Right2Know’s media contacts and request assistance with their media releases, they have also developed their own independent relationships with certain journalists who they can contact directly. Several members of the Joint Committee now have the confidence and skills to conduct media interviews at various levels, which enables quick interventions and impacts positively on their work.

Solidarity Through ‘Opening’ The Open Day One process that was catalytic in propelling the struggle of Blikkiesdorp forward was the Right2Know and Joint Committee action on Open Day. SRK Consulting Engineers (SRK), the company commissioned to do an environmental feasibility

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Vainola Makan - 9789463009232 Downloaded from Brill.com09/29/2021 10:08:29AM via free access V. Makan study for the proposed extension of the airport runway, proposed an Open Day for residents. After notification about the event from ODAC, Right2Know organised communities from Delft and Blikkiesdorp to attend. It was evident that Blikkiesdorp residents had not been informed by SRK despite the fact that they would definitely be affected. Right2Know organised a brief preparation meeting in an adjacent venue. This exercise enabled the community to assess the consultation process, and position themselves to demand a fair opportunity to give their inputs and gather information about how the airport project would affect and impact surrounding communities. The Open Day was disappointing. Community members felt that the process definitely did not feel ‘open’, as information was presented in very technical posters that they could not easily understand. We realised that in order for this event to be truly consultative, decisive intervention was needed. In consultation with the community members, we decided to reorganise the space: we rearranged the chairs to form a circle, posed questions to Airports Company South Africa (ACSA) and SRK and asked them to address the community directly and not only through posters. We learned that a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) between ACSA and the City of Cape Town regarding this project existed and, after some probing, ACSA agreed to make the MOA available to the community.

After the Open Day Immediately after the Open Day, Right2Know assisted the Blikkiesdorp community to release a press statement which was workshopped to ensure that it carried the message the community wanted to communicate. This resulted in the struggles of Blikkiesdorp and the residents’ unhappiness about lack of transformation and transparency being publicly exposed through radio and print media coverage. This was clearly effective, as ACSA then personally delivered the MOA to the Blikkiesdorp community. The Joint Committee studied the document and discovered that ACSA intended buying land in the Symphony Way Development Corridor for commercial and industrial development. This land would be ‘made available along the western edge of Symphony Way for an integrated development corridor for light industrial, commercial and residential developments’ (Tilley, 2015). The development would include housing and public facilities. There would be 2738 housing units, but the question remained as to how these units would be allocated given that there were 20000 people in need. ACSA informed Blikkiesdorp that Freedom Farm, a settlement close to the city, would be moved first, as they were on ACSA land. For those in ‘Blikkies’ who could not be accommodated, they would ‘find an alternative solution’ (Tilley, 2015). The Joint Committee then arranged a number of talks with relevant government officials in the Department of Human Settlements. It soon became clear that this ‘alternative solution’ would not be forthcoming. A Department official reported that they would

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Vainola Makan - 9789463009232 Downloaded from Brill.com09/29/2021 10:08:29AM via free access From information to knowledge for action in Blikkiesdorp only be moved in three, five or seven years’ time. This left the community with greater uncertainty about their future. They decided they needed to meet with the mayor. After a march to the city, the mayor finally agreed to meet but only invited the Joint Committee and three representatives from Right2Know and ODAC. Right2Know then made provision for some of the wider-Blikkiesdorp community members to accompany the Joint Committee to the civic centre where the meeting was to take place. At the meeting, the mayor pointed out land on a map that would be earmarked for housing and given to those who qualified. After the local government elections two months later, she reneged on this promise by saying only 2000 of the 20000 Blikkiesdorp residents would have access to housing under the new arrangement. She added that she would not be able to meet them again until the new year.

The Relationship Between RIGHT2KNOW AND BLIKKIESDORP We have learned that solidarity with communities leading their own struggle can go a long way if the community is respected in their leadership role, with sustained support from others. The idea of listening and suspending judgement in the beginning phases of a process is important. Initially, there was a cautious and strained relationship. It was frustrating not to know with whom to liaise as the legitimacy of the Blikkiesdorp leadership was uncertain; we did not want to get caught up in one ‘camp’ or another. However, the relationship between Blikkiesdorp’s Joint Committee and Right2Know has grown over time into an authentic, mutually rewarding, familial one which encourages openness, loyalty, frank exchange and commitment, even through difficult patches. Building the relationship sometimes necessitated meeting up to two or three times a week. Furthermore, although certain provincial and national staff members and activists have been more intensely involved in the Blikkiesdorp project than others, the community is no stranger in Right2Know’s monthly provincial working group meetings, resulting in their regular inclusion in our programmes and mutual support between the two organisations for activities and protest action. Even though the learning was supported by ODAC and Right2Know in the beginning, the Joint Committee has become more self-reliant as they gain the skills and confidence to lead and direct their own struggle with clarity and vision.

Meaningful Engagement and Increased Public Participation In a strategy session with Right2Know, the Joint Committee decided to begin a process of engagement with all stakeholders, moving methodically up the decision-making ladder until they get answers from the city with respect to their future. This included meeting with the head of the Department of Human Settlements, ACSA, SRK and the City of Cape Town. Right2Know was requested

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Vainola Makan - 9789463009232 Downloaded from Brill.com09/29/2021 10:08:29AM via free access V. Makan by the community to attend as observers in the meetings and to assist with press releases. This action was a turning point for the Blikkiesdorp community, as they used ‘meaningful engagement’ and public participation at a whole new level in their struggle, which proved to be an important catalyst in taking their struggle forward.

LESSONS LEARNED FOR FUTURE CAMPAIGNS

Moving Away from ‘Helicopter’ Solidarity A lesson learned by Right2Know is that we need to be cautious in the process of extending solidarity so that it is not experienced as ‘taking over’ community struggles. At some stage in the organisation, we swooped in like ‘fire fighters’ arriving at every uprising or struggle to see what help we could give; sometimes demonstrating solidarity only by adding our banners to the campaign. Right2Know leadership came to the conclusion that it would serve the solidarity work of the organisation better to focus on quality interventions instead of quantity. This revised strategy aims to target a few specific communities in order to support their struggles over time with deeper interventions. We learned that in order to support or show solidarity to the communities in struggle, we need to allow those directly affected to lead but at the same time demonstrate our support through real actions. This requires respecting the communities’ ‘proximity’ and ‘within-it-ness’ to the situation. We learned that the ‘helicopter model’ is inappropriate.5 A ‘horizontal’ relationship is needed for solidarity to be meaningful to all. Solidarity is therefore best displayed as active citizenship rather than passive bystanders occasionally offering empathetic gestures. It is something that arises from a place of strength, shaping a clear vision of change and transformation.

Language and Information as Tools to Reach and Include Given the technical nature of our programmatic work, another lesson for Right2Know is the importance of accessible information in popular, understandable formats. For this purpose, Right2Know publishes short booklets which community activists can use in awareness-raising campaigns. In addition, we have established a quarterly tabloid – an article on the story of Blikkiesdorp was included in one of the tabloids and reached many more of the activists in the community. The Blikkiesdorp community requested Right2Know to set up an information table at a local community festival. However, it is important to note that access to information does not necessarily mean understanding that information. Processes for moving information to knowledge are necessary.

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Creating Safe Spaces for Meaningful Engagement Empowering and safe spaces were created where the Joint Committee could engage meaningfully, share knowledge and exercise their right to public participation in their struggle. This included empowering the community with media skills. In the process of building their struggle and solidarity, the Joint Committee shared a lot of their own stories, illustrating to us the need for compassionate listening in between the programme-specific information gathering.

Solidarity as Relational We also learned that when embarking on solidarity action, it is important to understand how our intervention is being perceived and received by those directly experiencing struggle or oppression. The concrete victory in the struggle for access to information gave the Joint Committee renewed confidence that they can take on decision-making structures. Communities’ respect for their leaders in these struggles is important. Even if the supporting organisation can see a solution to a problem, it is important to let the community go through their own processes of problem solving. The experience of the struggle in Blikkiesdorp can be described as ‘an encounter that both opposes ongoing colonization and that seeks to heal the social, cultural, and spiritual ravages of colonial history’ (Gaztambide-Fernández, 2012, p. 42). Our experience with Blikkiesdorp confirms Paulo Freire’s (1972) argument that knowledge is a dialogical act, a political act of knowing. What was also reinforced in our experiences was the wisdom of other popular educators; that the learnings of activists should be grounded in their own being, experiences, interests, needs, circumstances and destinies (Steiner, Krank, Bahruth, & McLaren, 2000).

NOTES

1 See http://www.joseph-wresinski.org/en/ (accessed December 2016). 2 Its official name is Symphony Way Temporary Relocation Area. 3 The South African Protection of State Information Bill, formerly named the Protection of Information Bill and commonly referred to as the Secrecy Bill, is a highly controversial piece of proposed legislation which aims to regulate the classification, protection and dissemination of state information, weighing state interests up against transparency and freedom of expression. 4 See www.r2k.org.za (accessed December 2016). 5 Right2Know leadership discussed the ‘helicopter model’ concept, which was coined by one of the activists in the R2K national summit in 2015. It refers to organisations going into communities for short-term assistance without the longer-term commitment to see struggles through.

REFERENCES

Cassiem, A. (2010, September). After the thrill has gone: The Western Cape Anti-Eviction Campaign and the 2010 World Cup. Speech at Rhodes University teach-in on the 2010 World Cup, Grahamstown. Retrieved December, 2016, from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nf0SBMGJeQU

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De Paula, M. (2014, October). The 2014 world cup in Brazil: Its legacy and challenges. Retrieved December, 2016, from https://www.solidar.ch/sites/default/files/project_files/study_world_cup_ brazil_0.pdf Freire, P. (1972). Pedagogy of the oppressed. Harmondsworth: Penguin. Gaztambide-Fernández, R. (2012). Decolonization and the pedagogy of solidarity. Decolonization: Indigeneity, Education & Society, 1(1), 41–67. Haferburgm, C., Golka, T., & Selter, M. (2009). Public viewing areas: Urban interventions in the context of mega-events. In U. Pillay, R. Tomlinson, & O. Bass (Eds.), Development and dreams: The urban legacy of the 2010 football World Cup (pp. 174–199). Cape Town: HSRC Press. Hart, G. (2013). Rethinking the South African crisis: Nationalism, populism and hegemony. Durban: University of KwaZulu-Natal Press. Neocosmos, M. (2011). Transition, human rights and violence: Rethinking a liberal political relationship in the African neo-colony. Interface, 3(2), 359–399. ODAC. (2015, January). Blikkiesdorp socio-economic survey. Cape Town: Open Democracy Advice Centre. Right2Know. (2016, November). Mission, vision and principles. Retrieved December, 2016, from http://www.r2k.org.za/about/mission-vision-and-principles/ Steiner, S. S., Krank, H. M., Bahruth, R. E., & McLaren, P. (2000). Freireian pedagogy, praxis, and possibilities: Projects for the new millennium. New York, NY: Falmer. Tilley, A. (2015, June 9). Should Blikkiesdorp move, or the airport? GroundUp. Retrieved December, 2016, from http://www.groundup.org.za/article/should-blikkiesdorp-move-or-airport_3014/

INTERVIEW

Right2Know interview with Joanne Cupido, Cape Town, 19 May 2016.

Vainola Makan Right to Know Campaign

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