8 April 2020
Feeding our hopes for the future Writer Elaine Davie
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haphama is a small unregistered ECD centre in Zwelihle, one of approximately 40 in the township. It offers 20 children of some of the poorest shack dwellers in the area high quality care and education at a fee that covers little more than the healthy food the children eat each day. Their programme is supervised by the Enlighten Education Trust. When lockdown was imposed, Phaphama, too, was forced to close its doors and the children had to stay at home, where many of the parents were either already unemployed or had been retrenched due to the state of disaster. Mabel Saul, one of Enlighten’s ECD facilitators, who had originally established the centre in her late mother’s house, was worried sick about whether the children were getting enough to eat at home. She approached Magriet Peter, Enlighten’s Trust Manager for advice. The upshot was that the Board of the NGO approved the disbursement of R4 000 to purchase food for the children. “Magriet sent a taxi to fetch my daughter, Bianca, who is the principal, and me,” relates Mabel, “and we were able to buy enough food to feed each child for at least a week. We packed it into separate food parcels after first sanitising everything and then Bianca drew up a schedule and phoned each of the parents to come separately to fetch their pack. “You can’t imagine how excited they were. One of them was in tears. She told us that she had used the last food in her house that morning and had no money to buy any more.” Mabel says the ECD centres that are the most adversely affected are the unregistered ones. “Those that are registered continue to receive their subsidies from the Department of Social Development, but there’s no safety net for the rest, so I’m very worried about the children from those 39 other centres,” she sighs.
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3 SRAs gear up
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espite the restraints imposed by the nationwide lockdown, a lot of work is being done behind the scenes to ensure that the three Special Rating Areas (SRAs) recently approved by the Overstrand Municipality will be up and running by the end of July, when the first additional levy will be payable. The three SRAs that were approved are Kleinmond, Hermanus and Onrus-Vermont. The Kleinmond SRA (KSRA) will include all properties in the area within the boundaries of Kleinmond, stretching from the eastern boundary of Heuningkloof to the western boundary of Palmiet, including the informal settlement. The southern boundary is the coastline and the northern boundary the mountain.
“But I want to express the Phaphama parents’ deepest gratitude to the Board of Enlighten Education Trust. They can be assured that they have made a huge difference to the lives of those 20 little children.” Since speaking to Mabel, we have been informed by Magriet Peter that she has received a further anonymous donation of R50 000 to meet the feeding needs of 240 children from some of the other unregistered ECD centres, not only in Zwelihle, but also in Mount Pleasant and Hawston, and perhaps even elsewhere in the Overstrand. She says she would welcome any other contributions members of the public would like to make, either in cash or in kind. She can be reached on 082 4395860. From a press release issued on Sunday by the Western Cape Government, we have also learnt of an additional allocation for the purchase of food for children from registered ECD centres throughout the Western Cape, as well as for those school children who were beneficiaries of the school feeding scheme. ABOVE: The sky’s the limit for this Phaphama child before the pandemic. PHOTO: Enlighten Education Trust LEFT: A father and his Phaphama toddler come to collect her food pack which will last about a week. PHOTO: Mabel Saul
The Hermanus SRA (HSRA) will include all properties in the area within the boundaries of 17th Avenue, Voëlklip in the east up to Swartdam Road in the west, with Still Street as the southern border and Fernkloof Nature Reserve as the northern border. Suburbs included in the HSRA are Westcliff, Westdene, Industria, Northcliff, the Central Business District (CBD), Eastcliff, Hermanus Heights, Fernkloof, Kwaaiwater and Voëlklip. The Onrus-Vermont Special Rating Area (OVSRA) includes all areas in Ward 13 (Onrus, Onrus North, Berghof and Vermont). According to OVSRA chair Abner Inghels, the committee is awaiting the end of the lockdown so that a public meeting can be hosted where the committee members will be elected for the non-profit organisation that will run the SRA. He said the proposed first phase will entail purchasing and installing CCTV cameras and implementing patrolling services. “The monitoring of water testing at the Onrus Estuary, cleaning and maintenance of green belts in respect of litter, building rubble and invasive alien vegetation, maintenance and upgrading of the coastal path area, municipal parks and public spaces, the possible pick-up of household refuse during peak season when needed, and extra lifeguards at the lagoon/beach during specially identified periods will also be looked at.” Michael Farr, Chair of the HSRA Steering Committee, said they are awaiting a shortlist of items that still need to be approved. “We are expecting the munic-
ipality to shortly approve the memorandum of incorporation, allowing Hermanus Public Protection to be appointed as the management body. The same goes for the financial agreement that will stipulate the amount to be levied every month from property owners. “The other processes we are busy concluding are the requests for proposals on the delivery of crime prevention and safety services, as well as for top-up cleaning services. The post for a fulltime manager for HPP is also being advertised. The final process will be the election of a new board of directors for HPP during June,” said Farr. It is expected that HPP will take over as the management body on 1 July 2020. According to the management committee of the KSRA, the proposed first phase will focus on the purchase and installation of CCTV cameras. The aim is to install a total of 42 cameras in the first five years. The benefits of an SRA include: Providing support to Overstrand Municipality Traffic and Law Enforcement Services (especially after hours and considering the challenge to provide officials 24/7 in all residential areas); • Monitoring and early reporting of signs of degeneration and decay in public areas; • Enabling the community to share in the benefits of a safe, healthy and clean environment for living, working and recreation; • Equitable sharing of the costs of SRA operations by all rateable property owners who contribute according to the rand valuation of their properties; • Encouraging tourism as a key economic activity of the area, as visitors will feel safer and therefore be more inclined to invest in the towns and their environment; • Creating a safer, cleaner and healthier environment, which will contribute indirectly towards an increase in the value of properties; • Enabling Law Enforcement to respond and apprehend lawbreakers more quickly and effectively, since camera film footage will be available as evidence in a court of law.
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For more information, you can email the OVSRA steering committee at onrus.vermont.sra@gmail.com, or visit www.kleinmondsra.co.za or www.hermanussra.co.za
