The urban palimpsest: Part 2, gridding the vision
[Continued from yesterday’s Part 1.]
By: David A. Smith
As we saw yesterday, for fifteen years Joe Slovo had been an informal settlement in the
Joe Slovo, March 2009
(A large set of pictures is here, from which this post’s images are drawn. My quotes are from a report, written by Tom Herbstein of the University of Cape Town’s African Security and Justice Program (ASJP), and circulated by SDI member affiliate FED-UP, South Africa’s Federation of the Urban Poor led by Rose Molokoane )
Monday 9th March 2009
The fire began in Joe Slovo in the early morning. Within a few minutes, it had spread widely, fueled by intense winds. Eyewitnesses described the panic as people sought to save themselves, their families and possession from the flames.
At one point the fire bridged a road separating two sections of the township, as flaming sheets of PVC plastic were blown across. Streetlights blew, cables melted. So thick was the smoke it was impossible to breathe, let alone to save possessions.
Thankfully, no lives were lost, no serious injuries sustained. But 512 shelters burned to the ground.
Joe Slovo, March 2009
A palimpsest is a previously-written parchment that has been scraped clean. Parchment was so valuable it had to be reused, so medieval copyists learned how to scrub the delicate surface, removing the former writing so new wisdom could be set down.
Palimpsest – new writing perpendicular to the old
Like urban land that has to be reblocked before it can be formalized, and formalized before it can be upgraded.
What is blocking?
An informal settlement usually grows haphazardly; shacks are built where free space is available. Blocking, a fundamental preparatory step for in-situ upgrading, reorganizes the shacks to align in rows, back-to-back, with straight pathways in between.
I’ve encountered blocking around the world, particularly in
After blocking, fires are more controllable, the community is safer for residents, and creates space for future upgrade of key municipal services. The township has the possibility of formalisation as adequate mapping [to establish plots for entitling – Ed.] can take place.
Joe Slovo, March 2009
Blocking is intangible infrastructure – it creates the grid onto which critical utility services like water, sanitation, and electrical power lines can be laid.
The fire created a palimpsest – physically by demolishing the structures, politically by wiping out established notions of security, and economically by triggering large-scale disaster-relief funding.
The fire department was first on the scene, followed shortly by Disaster Management, and attempted to douse the fire, which helped until the pumps ran dry and could not be refilled, presumably due to a lack of hydrants.
Lack of public infrastructure led to lack of private property. In Caesar’s
Joe Slovo, March 2009
The management of iKhayalami were woken by a call from the Joe Slovo leadership informing them that Joe Slovo was burning and needed their assistance.
First payoff – there was already a political network of trust built up over several years. Without that trust, the phone call would not have happened.
Later that morning the leadership began a count of the victims and to draw up a list of those who had lost homes and needed assistance.
Enumeration is critical.
That we may wander o’er this bloody field
To book our dead, and then to bury them.
“To book our dead, and then to bury them“
Also critical is community participation and community acceptance of those they now and trust:
A small confrontation developed between the community and the City when officials suggested bringing in bulldozers to level the area, so that the township could be rebuilt on flatter land. However, the community was highly opposed to the proposal, not because they didn’t want the area flattened, but because distrust was so strong that they feared this may be just a ploy to clear the area and forcibly relocate the residents to
When iKhayalami arrived to assess the damage, it was then that the leadership suggested that however tragic the fire was, it created a blank canvas, in Joe Slovo, where they were able to rebuild in accordance with blocking.
Ideas germinate and sprout – like the idea of a palimpsest.
It was also requested by the leadership that iKhayalami negotiate with Disaster Management, in regards to the distribution of material, as they were busy compiling the lists.
Joe Slovo, March 2009
I’ve encountered this dynamic in my work with SDI. If one comes from the formal world, the world of suits and spreadsheets and laptops and vocabulary, one is automatically suspect. Trust is earned but it is personal trust, not corporate or institutional, which means it must be personally maintained and refreshed.
Disaster Management’s response was cool as they feared responsibility for any future fires may then be laid upon them.
Entirely understandable – and intriguing shift of responsibility. Do informal communities and informal settlers have the same rights to services as other city dwellers? That depends on which government agency one encounters – and as more agencies treat those they encounter as having individual rights, more settlements gain community rights. Bit by bit, the community is bootstrapped into the formal city.
Plots marked with string: Joe Slovo, March 2009
That requires the community, for its part, to live up to its responsibilities of citizenship, one of which is mobilization.
While some officials were personally supportive of the idea, they insisted that previous attempts elsewhere had not succeeded and it was pointless trying to mobilise Joe Slovo, especially in the aftermath of a traumatic fire.
Furthermore, Disaster Management warned they would only be on site for three days, given the high number of emergencies they had to respond to.
Joe Slovo, March 2009
That challenge threw down the gauntlet: if you cannot agree, and soon, you will all lose.
After that all emergency packs, clothes and food distribution would be suspended regardless of those still in need.
Disaster response requires having a plan all ready to go – and at Joe Slovo, people did not:
It was requested that Disaster Management withhold from delivering their starter packs to site until a clear plan had been agreed as to how to block Joe Slovo.
That required broad stakeholder participation:
Nonetheless, the leadership and iKhayalami decided to proceed and at noon a community meeting was held with the aim of both finalising the list of those who had lost accommodation and also to introduce the concept of blocking. Five hundred people participated.
Joe Slovo, March 2009
There was an overall interest in blocking, although most residents still had yet to grasp the idea. However, halfway through the meeting it was interrupted by Disaster Management announcing they were to begin distributing material.
Although this caused a sudden panic amongst the community, and the meeting quickly dissolved as people rushed off to secure materials, it was felt the critical buy-in towards blocking had been attained.
More likely each householder was so preoccupied with securing his or her own packet of free goods that they did not have time to debate the nuances of blocking. That created a temporary political vacuum which the technical assistance providers could fill.
Joe Slovo, March 2009
With the help of the leadership, iKhayalami began measuring out plots, using rope and pegs, in one corner of Joe Slovo. Plots measured were 5m x 4m wide, and back-to-back, with a 1.5m walkway in between, deemed to be the maximum size to achieve both a reasonable degree of space for families, while fitting the original number of residents back in.
These are small houses; even allowing only a minimum of space between buildings, the typical dwelling will be one room, maybe 12m² (130 square feet), with no running water. People will carry water back in jugs, and will use common toilets.
Joe Slovo, March 2009
The size was also based on the assumption that material acquired by residents from the City would be used to supplement the iKhayalami shelters.
Joe Slovo, March 2009
Towards the end of the afternoon, iKhayalami started to erect their emergency army tents that allowed the community a safe place to sleep, close to site, so that commuting back and forth could be minimised. This was a very popular move as people were also reluctant to leave Joe Slovo for fear of being evicted.
Joe Slovo, March 2009
By the end of the Monday, virtually no construction had begun on site, as people waited to see what would happen.
Joe Slovo, March 2009
Would the promises be kept?
[Continued tomorrow in Part 3.]