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Daily Maverick
4 days ago
- Politics
- Daily Maverick
How a city came together to rewrite its future in the age of climate change
The People's Plan for the Right to Housing in the age of Climate Change was created by the people, for the people. On 29 May, it was officially adopted by the City of eThekwini as part of its Integrated Development Plan. Complaining about government inaction is practically a national hobby for South Africans – and I get it. Taxes are paid, yet services go undelivered and infrastructure crumbles. But by law, it's the government's job, not ours, to protect the most vulnerable – to ensure safe housing, emergency relief and basic services, especially when disaster strikes. But what happens when ordinary citizens decide waiting isn't good enough? What happens when communities, academics, activists and city officials gather, in churches, libraries, and community halls (wherever they can find a free room) to build the system they wish already existed? In April 2022, catastrophic floods devastated KwaZulu-Natal, causing landslides, collapsing apartment blocks, sweeping away informal settlements and leaving about 489 people dead and more than 40,000 displaced. It is widely considered one of the deadliest storms of this generation in South Africa. A year later, the City of eThekwini's 2023 Integrated Development Plan (IDP) came out, and the 1,000-page document was widely criticised as a copy-and-paste job. It reused outdated content from previous integrated development plans (2002 and 2015) and failed to meaningfully address climate adaptation or disaster risk in human settlements. Despite a promised R1-billion flood relief fund from the National Treasury, the money had still not been accessed by the province. 'We didn't want them to fix the city back to the way it was, which was very unequal,' said Kira Erwin of the environmental justice group groundWork, and part of the Durban Coalition's leadership. 'It needed to be fixed in a way that also addressed inequality.' After the floods, groundWork, along with civil society, academics and residents, grew increasingly concerned that eThekwini wasn't adapting to climate risks. 'The question was, what do we need to do to become better prepared the next time a disaster like this comes?' said Professor Rajen Naidoo, the head of Occupational and Environmental Health at the University of KwaZulu-Natal. ' Because the disaster is going to come.' International scientists from the World Weather Attribution group found that human-induced climate change had made the type of extreme rainfall that hit KZN in April 2022 at least twice as likely, and 4-8% more intense. 'We were not seeing a substantive shift in the municipality that recognised how we were going to adapt our infrastructure and keep people safe,' said Erwin. 'It was a very difficult time,' recalled Thapelo Mohapi, general secretary of grassroots movement Abahlali baseMjondolo (meaning 'Residents of the Shacks' in isiZulu). 'The government was nowhere to be found.' Nicole Williams from Springfield said that after the floods flattened formal housing in her area and claimed three lives, residents began waking up. 'It's our constitutional right to expect decent living conditions and proper infrastructure,' she said. 'But if we don't hold them accountable, no one will.' 'We decided civil society could drive such a process … we really started to think through what it would take to keep ourselves safe,' said Erwin. And so at the end of 2023, the Durban Coalition was formed. For 18 months, people from informal settlements to suburban neighbourhoods came together with urban planners, grassroots groups, academics and officials to imagine a just, climate-resilient city built from the ground up. In community centres, boardrooms and libraries, they debated, listened, and co-drafted a bottom-up alternative to conventional planning. The result was a living document, the People's Plan for the Right to Housing in an Age of Climate Change: a 20-page blueprint for the city, built like an integrated development plan, but one that is concise, readable, (published in both English and isiZulu) and puts human rights, climate resilience and social justice at its core. Vusi Zweli, chairperson of Ubunye Bama Hostela, a community group of hostel dwellers in Durban and part of the coalition, said the People's Plan helped residents understand why they were 'always fighting a losing battle' – because key issues weren't included in the city's integrated development plan, and therefore had no budget. 'Many councillors don't understand what's inside the IDP themselves,' he said. 'So you can't expect them to explain it to people on the ground.' With the People's Plan translated into isiZulu and discussed in hostel meetings and workshops, Zweli said residents could finally understand what to expect from government planning. 'We call it the People's Plan – it may sound like we're tossing in a populist term, but I think that phrase captures the process into the final document,' said Naidoo. 'This was written by the people, for the people. It's not a politician telling us what they think is best – it's what we've lived through, and know what we need,' said Williams from Springfield. The People's Plan is built on five key pillars: Human rights-centred housing: The plan recommends that the revised housing strategy, as part of eThekwini's Integrated Development Plan and Housing Sector Plan, must be grounded in human rights principles. That means planning and service delivery should prioritise safety, health and inclusivity. Basic services — water, sanitation, waste removal — must be prioritised and maintained. Inclusive governance: The plan proposes creating a municipal climate change high-level working group, including civil society, business and academia, to coordinate resilience planning. It also calls for a formal multi-stakeholder forum for integrated human settlements. Climate resilience in human settlements: Housing must account for climate risks like heat and flooding. The plan calls for vulnerability mapping, early warning systems and updating strategies like Durban's Resilience Strategy with current research. Support for displaced and vulnerable groups: Targeted responses are required for displaced people, refugees, and residents of informal settlements. The plan recommends tenure security, access to affordable, well-located housing, and support for inner-city social rentals. It calls for inclusive, community-driven rental housing solutions. Implementation and accountability: For the plan to succeed, municipal capacity must be strengthened, which includes increasing capital and operational budgets for housing, filling critical municipal posts and fostering a culture of innovation and responsiveness. Civil society and academia should monitor progress and share knowledge. Unlike many policy documents, the People's Plan is designed with clear institutional reforms and practical steps. It proposes high-level structures, budget allocations and performance indicators tied to measurable outcomes. And it insists on partnerships for monitoring and adapting over time. 'The floods are because of climate change, but the consequences are because of poor management and poor planning,' said Naidoo, whose decades-long experience in occupational and environmental health was crucial in helping communities after the 2022 floods and in creating this document. Vulnerable groups – children, the elderly, pregnant women – bear the brunt, he explained. 'If government doesn't have the skills, then we bring in technical experts. That's the role we want to play as civil society.' For Naidoo, the plan's launch was historic: 'I think for the first time we had representation in a single room from communities across eThekwini. It may not have been like the Freedom Charter, but it followed the same consultative route.' But getting the city to take the plan seriously wasn't straightforward. Initially, things looked hopeful – officials participated in workshops throughout the plan's creation and attended the launch in November 2024, indicating it would inform the next integrated development plan. However, when the draft 2025/2026 integrated development plan came out, the coalition was disappointed. Though improved in structure, it still lacked meaningful climate action. The People's Plan was pushed to an appendix – meaning no budget, no department ownership and no power. Still, the coalition kept on working with the municipality – with Durban coalition members, including GroundWork, sending in official comments during the official public comment period calling for the proper implementation of their plan. In late May 2025, after sustained advocacy, city officials reportedly agreed to formally reference the People's Plan in the integrated development plan and to advocate for its implementation in partnership with civil society. Then, on Thursday, 29 May, while I was speaking to Erwin about the plan's significance, she interrupted excitedly: 'Julia, you're not going to believe this – I just got an email saying the 25/26 IDP was adopted by council today.' Bongumusa Zondo, the chief strategy officer for the eThekwini municipality, whose office oversees the integrated development plan processes, confirmed this, and told Daily Maveric k that, 'the People's Plan is aligned with the Municipality Resilience Strategy, Durban Climate Change Strategy and Action Plan.' While those municipal strategies exist, Erwin noted that implementation had lagged. What made the People's Plan different, she explained, was its integrated approach to housing and climate – a shift from siloed thinking. It promotes community-led disaster preparedness and envisions local systems – water, food, energy – that can function independently in crises. Zondo added that the city had included a performance indicator in its 2025/26 Service Delivery and Budget Implementation Plan, reporting on projects aimed at improving municipal resilience. He said the municipality was strengthening partnerships with civil society to improve neighbourhood-level disaster planning and response. United by similarities 'There's a long history of tension between ratepayers' associations and informal settlement organisations in South Africa, especially in Durban,' said Mohapi. Formal residents often see shack-building as a threat to property values and services, while shack dwellers build near jobs and transport. 'It's always been survival of the fittest,' Mohapi said, 'with the ratepayers feeling they are subsidising the poor when the government isn't doing enough. But in the coalition, we've come to see that we are all victims.' He described how powerful it was to engage with people 'who had never seen us as human beings… to have that audience for the first time was great'. He said it was also important to be heard by academics, 'and write what we are saying and put that in a form of research and then of course put it in a plan that is going to be handed over to government'. The coalition, he said, allowed honest exchange. 'We shared our pain and they shared their views. 'Today, we're friends. No one is undermined because they come from an affluent area. We discuss issues as equals.' Mohapi called the ratepayers' group in the coalition progressive 'because they managed to sit with us, listen to us, and they actually now realise that we are the same and we have the same issues'. Nicole Daniels, founder of Springfield Disaster Management and a former ratepayers' association member, agreed. Though she had long empathised with informal settlements, she said the coalition made shared realities clearer. 'The process opened up space for people from all walks of life to realise we're facing the same problems in eThekwini,' Daniels said. 'Whether you live in formal or informal housing, the challenges – poor infrastructure, unresponsive government – are the same.' In April 2022, mudslides killed three people in Springfield. Though the area has formal housing, it's on a floodplain. Poor maintenance and extreme weather lead to damage, sewage spills, power cuts and water outages. Daniels recalled how their councillor, who comes from an informal settlement, was shocked. 'He said, 'I had no idea people in formal housing have the same problems as us.' ' Zondo from eThekwini municipality said that, 'the People's Plan is very important because it demonstrates the bottom-up approach, organised society taking responsibility to work with their government to address local governance matters for the benefit of all. ' Mohapi, as well as the other collaborators, are happy that their document is finally in the process of being implemented into real policy. 'And I think it's very important to realise that even though we are poor, we can think for ourselves and we can come up with solutions,' said Mohapi. 'And it is only the people who are affected directly by the problem of disaster that can come up with solutions on how to get out of that problem. And the People's Plan is just about that.' DM
The Citizen
07-05-2025
- General
- The Citizen
GroundWork KZNSA exhibit celebrates 25 years of activism
OVER two decades of environmental activism is on display at the KwaZulu-Natal Society of the Arts (KZNSA) Gallery on Bulwer Road, where the social justice non-profit organisation, groundWork, is exhibiting their 25-year legacy of fighting for the well-being of South Africans. The exhibit, which began on May 2 and will conclude on June 8, is displayed in four sections of the gallery with visitors being greeted at the door by social justice banners and placards with powerful messages such as 'Protect our human rights defenders and whistleblowers' and 'Waste not! Burn not! Africa' from 2007. Dorothy Brislin, senior communications campaigner at groundWork, said the exhibition is about highlighting and celebrating the organisation's legacy in fighting environmental injustice. 'The organisation was started by three people in Pietermaritzburg,' said Brislin. 'Today we have over 50 staff members, a majority of whom are Durban-based and we have links across the continent.' She said groundWorks was born out of the Durban South Basin community's fight against pollution as people were getting sick from the toxic air and land that they were living on. Also Read: Durban environmental organisation marches for climate change 'The principle behind groundWork is to support communities while helping them to organise and mobilise for where there is no accountability on part of corporates in the fossil fuel industries who were putting profit before the people,' said Brislin. 'Fighting climate change is also a major part of the organisation as we have seen its devastating effects, particularly in Durban.' The exhibition, curated by Vaugh Sadie, includes still and moving images, placards, campaign T-shirts, and affidavits among other items from campaigns in the fight against fossil fuels, nuclear power and fracking. There is a section that shines a spotlight on the UPL chemical spill disaster with affidavits on the impact available for people to read. A memorial wall where those who died while fighting for a safe and pollution free SA are honoured is another major feature in the exhibit. Whistle-blowers who blew a lid on corruption, human rights violations, and environmental and social injustice are celebrated. 'For each room, we tried to find something that would make you feel like you are with the banners outside, it makes you like you were part of the march with the placards. In sound room, you are part of the people singing the protest song,' said Sadie as he explained the thought process behind the exhibit. 'What we tried to do with the spaces is to create a sense of people, that you are among people and that you are never alone. That was the intention of this. There is crispness that we bring to the detailing to the exhibition, the minimal style that allows you to engage with it.' The exhibition is open throughout the week, with walkabouts offered on Saturdays, from 10:00 to 12:00. From May 21, they are inviting schools to book tours of the exhibition. For more information or to book, contact the gallery via email: gallery@ or call 031 277 1705. For more from Berea Mail, follow us on Facebook, X and Instagram. You can also check out our videos on our YouTube channel or follow us on TikTok. Click to subscribe to our newsletter – here At Caxton, we employ humans to generate daily fresh news, not AI intervention. Happy reading!
Eyewitness News
27-04-2025
- General
- Eyewitness News
New report describes how coal pollution is harming Highveld
People living in Phola and Carolina in Mpumalanga are bearing the brunt of coal mining pollution in the Highveld. Ronesa Mtshweni from Amandla Community Development in Carolina said the community is struggling with contaminated water, and this is hurting the health of residents. She was at the launch, on 15 April, of a report titled, Systems Change for a Just Transition. It was published by the environmental justice organisation groundWork. People at the launch who live in homes near mines described their concerns about acid water contamination and chronic health problems from air pollution. The report states that 'coal mining … is extremely destructive of the environment' and has 'seriously impacted on the health of residents of the Highveld'. The report shows the 'immense scale' of the acid mine drainage caused by coal mines. The Upper Olifants River catchment, its epicentre eMalahleni (Witbank), has been heavily polluted by the surrounding mines decanting acidic water from active, abandoned mines, and seepage from dumps, affecting the groundwater and soil. In 2012, thousands of Carolina residents were warned not to drink their tap water due to high acidity. After legal proceedings by Lawyers for Human Rights and the Legal Resources Centre on behalf of Carolina residents, the North Gauteng High Court ruled that the municipality had a duty to provide the residents with safe drinking water. Mtshweni said that over a decade later the community's water is still contaminated. She said that many mines had not been rehabilitated, causing land degradation. 'The issue around that is we have livestock. Even cars fall into those pits, and the government is doing nothing about it,' she added. Twelve of Eskom's 15 coal-fired power plants are in Mpumalanga, along with over 200 active coal mines and hundreds of abandoned ones. Sasol's Secunda plant is described as the biggest, single point carbon dioxide emitter in the world. The report states that an 'ecological debt' is owed to people in Highveld communities. 'Breathing is not a choice. The atmosphere is a common and, by polluting it, industry has enclosed it,' the report reads. The report mentions a study done for the Life After Coal campaign which describes the chronic conditions experienced by Phola residents including high blood pressure, eye problems, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, as well as high levels of respiratory problems. The report notes that community members also reported an uptake in cases of asthma and bronchitis. Many people from Phola 'are aware that coal mining is affecting their health' and about 75% of the respondents mentioned air pollution and dust from coal mines. (How this compares to the rest of the country isn't stated in the report.) Ntombi Ndaba from the Phola Environmental Justice Community said: 'People started getting eye issues, kidney and skin problems and looking at the timeline, the issues started when mining came into the community.' She said urgent action was needed to control the harm caused by mining in the Phola community. Ndaba added that sinkholes and blasting have damaged their homes. Blasting also causes dust pollution. 'Dust is a big issue,' she said. GroundUp previously reported on residents of Phola complaining about rock blasting from nearby mines damaging their homes and dust from mines causing plumes of dust and air pollution. The groundWork report calls for a 'just transition' to clean energy, in which communities are strengthened and civil society has a greater say. This article first appeared on GroundUp. Read the original article here.
