The Motherwell community is a poor community of about 200,000 people located in an area isolated geographically from the City of Port Elizabeth. The Swartskop Valley makes it almost impossible to bridge the geographic divides between it and the city and so the community looked set for poverty for a long time to come. However, all that changed when it was chosen, in 2001, to be a Presidential Lead Project within the "National Urban Development Programme", one of only 8 nodes chosen in South Africa. In 2003 the municipality appointed a project manager to oversee the Motherwell Urban Renewal Programme and it now housed within the office of the Executive Mayor, Nondumiso Maphazi. The community is also, with the Mdantsane community in Buffalo city, the recipient of a 30 million euros, 5 year programme of the EU (European Union) which aims to support urban renewal in the Eastern Cape. The Development Bank of south Africa have also joined in this initiative by choosing Motherwell as one of 6 areas in which to introduce the sustainable communities initiative as developed by the NMBM. A grant from the DBSA has enabled a full time project manager to be appointed to assist in this activity.
In the midst of all this activity lies the Sustainable Communities concept itself. Motherwell has been the site of the pilot project, where the municipality tested out many of its ideas and concepts within the community. As the concept is deeply entrenched within democracy and participation, the establishment of institutional structures to facilitate this participation were established. There are three levels of decision making and participation. The first is largely political; it is the Project Steering Committee which ensures that the decision makers are kept fully up to date and also ensures their full support. The next level is the Motherwell Interdepartmental Forum where project management takes place, where the government officials sit and where other stakeholders like provincial government, local NGOs, and utilities and service providers participate. The next level of participation is at the community level, and is called the Motherwell Stakeholder Community Forum. Here CBOs, ward committees (there are 8 in Motherwell) as well as officials involved in the community process will sit. Each ward has a community liaison officer (CLO) and they form part of this committee. It was within these structures that decisions were taken on the implementation of the Motherwell pilot project.
The pilot has largely, at his stage, been working on overlaying the physical infrastructure required for a SCU. This has meant that the communities within Motherwell have been planned for libraries, crèches, public open spaces, mixed tenure options, higher density patterns, and pedestrian and non motorized vehicle mobility as examples of the components of the SCU design. This entire infrastructure has been built and installed and so large parts of Motherwell boast an improved urban planning structure that can support the next layers of the SCU as they are brought in. All of this planning, design and implementation was done with full participation of the community.
Nelson Mandela Bay wins international award
In 2005 the World Leadership awards winner for town planning was given to the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality. The three criteria applied were 1) the quality of leadership displayed 2) the difficulties or obstacles that the city has overcome and 3) the degree of inspiration that the city may give to others
The World Leadership forum is a not for profit organization which promotes leadership internationally by highlighting the work of exceptional leaders and achievers in a host of disciplines
The next phase of the pilot which is about to commence with the new funding that has been approved and granted from the EU and the DBSA is to now overlay the social inclusion, local economic development and the training and capacity building to support all of this. After all, an SCU is not just the sum of the buildings and infrastructure but is also created from the vibrant local economy, improved quality of life and greater security that community members will feel as their area becomes a place where they and their neighbors can live and work and socially interact. What happens next at Motherwell will be carefully monitored and assessed; it's a difficult and challenging area because of the great poverty in a part of South Africa that is exacerbated by the isolation of the community. If it can succeed in Motherwell, it may well be an excellent blueprint process for others to replicate. Dawn Mc Carthy says " the work is not yet complete, we are still working on the planning guide, making it more useful, adding other components, We want to see more of the ecological sustainability aspects brought out more in the community projects and within the guide itself. We also want to look at sustainability indicators as a way of measuring our success". Clearly this work is organic and NMBM have a good headstart. Perhaps they could be the first South African eco-municipality?
The work outlined in the case study can only briefly detail what amounts to over seven years work, with many examples of where the NMBM has implemented parts of the programme. But planning and development are not the only aspects to the work of the NMBM. Other departments in the metro are taking on issues related to this work, such as the electricity and business energy unit which is developing an ambitious renewable energy and energy efficiency programme which is reported on in the next case study of this series. The Nelson Mandela Metro needs to be congratulated for the leadership role that it has played and the South African cities Network is not the only organization that recognizes the excellent work done. The NMBM won a coveted and prestigious international award in 2005 for its planning programme, the World Leadership award for town planning.
The Natural Step Framework was developed by a Swedish Doctor Karl Hendrik Robert.
The Natural Step System Conditions and Practices
Guiding Conditions
Types of Policies and Practices
1. Eliminate our community's contribution to fossil fuel dependence and to wasteful use of scarce metals and minerals.
Transit and pedestrian-oriented development; development heated and powered by renewable energy; alternatively fueled municipal fleets; incentives for organic agriculture that minimize phosphorus and petrochemical fertilizers and herbicides.
2. Eliminate our community's contribution to dependence upon persistent chemical and wasteful use of synthetic substances.
Healthy building design and construction that reduces or eliminates use of toxic building materials; landscape design and park maintenance that uses alternatives to chemical pesticides and herbicides; municipal purchasing guidelines that encourage low- or non-chemical product use.
3. Eliminate our community's contribution to encroachment upon nature (e.g., land, water, wildlife, forest, soil, ecosystems).
Redevelopment of existing sites and buildings before building new ones; open space, forest and habitat preservation; reduced water use and recycling of wash water.
4. Meet human needs fairly and efficiently.
Affordable housing for a diversity of residents; locally based business and food production; using waste as a resource; eco-industrial development; participatory community planning and decision making.
Presentation for Seminar
