GRAAFF-REINET NEWS - The residents of the Vrygronde informal settlement in Graaff-Reinet will in all probability be the first community in the Dr Beyers Naude Local Municipality (DBNLM) to legally challenge the lack of service delivery and other socio-economic rights violations.
Vrygronde, that houses an estimated 200 households, faces enormous challenges.
They have experienced a severe water crisis, with no access to safe and sustainable water resources, even before the adverse impact of the persistent drought became evident in the broader Graaff-Reinet community.
During the national Covid-19 lockdown period early in 2020, the municipality supplied the community with two water tanks. It was not only insufficient for 200 households but these tanks were refilled on a very irregular basis.
It was also never maintained and soon started leaking.
When the Eastern Cape received heavy rainfall in December 2020 the majority of Vrygronde settlement dwellings were completely flooded and several members of the community were literally left destitute.
The Vrygronde community experienced yet another climate disaster when many of the informal dwellings were destroyed by gale-force winds.
The lockdown period has indeed placed the spotlight on the serious socio-economic challenges that this community have been faced with for years.
A local NGO, the Support Centre for Land Change (SCLC), has been supporting the Vrygronde informal settlement dwellers since 2019 and through regular engagements local development, food- and energy sovereignty was identified as some of the key objectives. It was also decided that this community must take ownership of their struggles. To this end several community-driven initiatives commenced.
On 16 June 2020, as part of their Youth Day celebrations, the Vrygronde leadership established their own soup kitchen in response to the food crisis in their community. Subsequently, this soup kitchen started receiving some donations from private individuals and local businesses.
After the floods, with support from SCLC and Churches without Boundaries, they also managed to repair their houses without any assistance from local government.
Towards the end of 2020 some of the residents started utilizing water from the leaking water tanks to initiate their home gardens. At present, they are in the process of establishing their own agro-ecological hub.
This concept was introduced by the Co-operative Policy Alternative Centre (COPAC) - a grassroots development organization based at Wits University - SCLC and other national strategic partners as part of the South African Food Sovereignty Campaign (SAFSC).
The primary objective of the hub concept is to promote agro-ecology as a sustainable development alternative to the dirty fossil fuel energy developments such as shale gas exploration ("fracking") that have been promoted in parts of South Africa, particularly in the Karoo.
Infrastructure and agricultural inputs were made available to the community by a local business, Montego Feeds, and the Heinrich Böll Stiftung, a German donor that has been supporting the national #BanFracking Campaign that was launched by the SCLC in 2015. The community of Vrygronde has already prepared the site for production and the hub will be launched on Friday 23 April as part of their World Earth Day celebrations.
With the help of the Support Centre for Land Change and Churches without Boundaries, the Vrygronde residents managed to repair their houses without any assistance from the municipality.
Some Vrygronde residents have also been focussing on promoting the use of indigenous herbs for medicinal purposes in an attempt to break the dependence on pharmaceutical drugs that many people simply cannot afford. The Advocacy and Research Officer and the Intake Officer of the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) visited SCLC, who introduced them to the Vrygronde community. It has since been confirmed that the human rights violations that were observed by these officers have been referred to their Legal Officers who will be acting on behalf of the Vrygronde community.
In addition to this process, the Vrygronde community has also been included in the National Drought Campaign that was launched by COPAC, SCLC and other national strategic partners.
The Legal Resource Centre (LRC) is currently representing identified water-stressed communities in the country and has been communicating with relevant government departments regarding the issues faced by these communities since last year. Vrygronde is one of 66 remaining communities listed as water-stressed.
The Department of Housing, Water and Sanitation in the Eastern Cape as well as the relevant Minister have only responded to the issues of 22 of the 88 water-stressed communities that were listed, which excludes Vrygronde.
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