Blog

This week's results show wonderful progress in some metros, like eThekwini becoming the first metro to reach an orange light for the distribution of soap and handsanitiser and Ekurhuleni remaining the only metro to get...

Over half a million of Johannesburg’s 5.8 million people live in 181 informal settlements. The number of Covid-19 cases in the City increased rapidly from 971 on 6 May 2020 to 1,153 on 15 May 2020, a jump of 20 percent in less than 2 weeks. Shared water and toilet...

The Covid-19 pandemic has brought into question the future direction in local government systems and practices. Specifically, it has presented an opportunity to reassess the participation of vulnerable communities in local government decision-making. Undoubtedly, poor...

About a week ago a municipal official contacted one of the partners of the Asivikelane network trying to find out why his municipality had still not been given the green light in our bi-weekly findings, even after they had delivered water tanks to informal...

SA’s 5-million residents of informal settlements still dream of the services other South Africans take for granted. Over the past six weeks the Asivikelane campaign (“let’s protect each other” in Zulu) has reported that many residents still share communal toilets that...

The Emalahleni Informal Settlement Cluster (also known as MASCOM) is a coalition currently made up of 12 informal settlement communities in Emalahleni local Municipality in Mpumalanga. The communities include Coronation, Jooma Farm, Spring Valley, Five Shaft,...

The National Treasury has confirmed that metros can use the unspent R2.4billion for water, sanitation and refuse removal in informal settlements! Can we now expect more progress now that metro budgets were boosted from unspent Urban Settlements Development Grant...

This week, we note with excitement that the National Treasury has confirmed that metros can use the unspent R2.4billion for water, sanitation and refuse removal in informal settlements! Can we now expect more progress now that metro budgets were boosted from...

Our latest news journal: May 2020 - The Lockdown Edition is now available. To read more on our news, opinions and projects that we have been doing during the nation-wide lockdown click here. 

Planact commends the alternative plans to ensure communities are consulted for the Integrated Development Plan (IDP) and municipal budget presentation by Emalahleni Local Municipality through Emalahleni FM & Radio Kragbron Amptelik despite the #lockdown...

As you know, national Covid-19 infections doubled (from 3,300 to 7,220) over the last two weeks. Communal water and sanitation facilities make it likely that this spike will impact informal settlements more heavily than other population groups.    In...

Asivikelane has grown to 135 informal settlements and this week we add 5 non-metro towns to the 5 metros where we are already monitoring water, sanitation and refuse removal. As you will see in the attached results, access to water has improved in recent weeks. But...

Civil society organizations who work closely with Informal settlements communities have called upon the Department of Human Settlement, Water and Sanitation to rethink de-densification as the dominant proposed strategy in the context of Covid-19  Full statement...

Here are some advice from the world health organisation about the use of masks in our communities during the Covid-19 pandemic. Download pdf

Results from monitoring of service delivery in informal settlements are in. We see great improvement in cleaning of communal toilets, provision of water in some and protective gears in Winnie Mandela have been provided. Download the PDF Download the data

Asivikelane is an initiative of IBP South Africa, Planact, the SASDI Alliance and Afesis-corplan, that gives voice to informal settlement residents in South Africa’s major cities who are faced with severe basic service shortages during the Covid-19 crisis. By...