TOWARDS A DISCOURSE OF COLLABORATION:

THE MAKHANDA CIRCLE OF UNITY

Whilst it has long been articulated by experienced social activists and oversight bodies that local government in South Africa is in crisis and unable to respond to all the needs of its constituencies, it is a problem that cannot be overstated.

The consequences of ignoring the degeneration and gradual collapse of local institutions are not only the destruction of the structures that are intended to enable dignified conditions of living for communities but also, the failure of much-needed service delivery.

Marginalised communities continue to sink into a never-ending cycle of struggle that, at its worst, dehumanizes them. At the precipice we find ourselves in, with increasing levels of discontent and anger expressed by community members towards their local municipalities, it is no longer enough to be angry without translating that anger into constructive action.

In turn, the resolution to the current crisis of governance that we are in, cannot be constructed by any one actor; it requires an intentional commitment to the principles of inclusive development and collaboration across political and ideological lines to facilitate meaningful change. The stakes are too high for this not to be a priority. It is this very same sentiment that underscores the purpose of the Makhanda Circle of Unity (MCU). Makana Municipality is one of the municipalities that is staring down the barrel of irreversible socio-economic harm. The municipality has, in recent times, occupied national attention a result of protests caused by rapidly growing discontent and distrust in the municipality. The main seat of the municipality is in Makhanda, the largest of its seven cities and oft the site of struggle for frustrated citizens.

Makhanda is also the home of the MCU, the starting base for what is hoped to be an ‘exportable idea’ that is scalable and replicable in similar contexts of small rural towns. The MCU is a registered non-profit organisation (registration number: 258810 NPO) that was founded in late 2019 and works through a variety of selfdirecting thematic “clusters”, focusing on areas ranging from education to food security. It was formed following a series of engagements with key civil society, academic and business stakeholders in the city of Makhanda in Makana Municipality, who were all deeply concerned with the hastening downwards spiral of a municipal structure that, just 14 years prior, had been heralded as one of the best performing municipalities in South Africa.

Sisesakhe Ntlabezo is the Programme Manager of the Makhanda Circle of Unity in Makhanda, Eastern Cape

At the heart of these stakeholder engagements was a common message – that only through inclusive collaboration by all can improvement be seen in the conditions of the municipality. As such, at its heart the MCU is an organisation that is deeply committed to facilitating citizen participation in the development and revival of Makana Municipality, alongside the municipality itself.

It is vitally important to recognise that the MCU is not the first such attempt to engender improvement in the state of Makana Municipality. Several organisations and entities, both local and national, have in the past come forward to work with municipal actors to respond to the debilitating situation Makana finds itself in. National organisations such as Gift of the Givers and Kagiso Trust have invested significant amounts of capacity and resources into the Municipality in such pursuits. Local organisations, despite what can be surmised as an exhaustion with the cyclical pattern of service delivery failure in the region, have remained steadfast in their commitment to protecting the conditions of living for residents. While such attempts have not always been successful in the long run, the impact of these attempts to support the municipality have had an indelible impact. The MCU seeks to harness this commitment and willingness to support the municipality and facilitate a space for various stakeholders to sit together and collectively strategies on responses to the challenges at hand. In essence, ours is to support the creation of what can be described as a living language of collaboration in the city.

The MCU has the potential to be a vibrant model that could break down long-standing barriers between the municipality and the community by actively attempting to sustain a channel of communication between the community and the municipality. In the short time it has been around, the MCU has collaborated with the Makana Municipality in late 2020 to join the Open Government Partnership (OGP) network, which in turn led to Makana Municipality being the first municipality in South Africa to be accepted into this global network. It has also created a forum for key stakeholders in food security to coordinate some efforts to provide support to impoverished persons, particularly at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, and has started building relationships with regional structures of the Department of Social Development and the Department of Rural Development and Agricultural Reform. It has been invited to participate in the development of a precinct plan that is intended to stimulate the local economy of Makana and "Makhanda East," the poorer side of Makhanda City. Working alongside Kagiso Trust, it has also started working on strategies to improve data management in the city in order to equip the municipality with the requisite information it needs to be responsive to impoverished citizen needs. Much more work needs to be done to pave a path out of the challenge that municipality faces – and this work cannot be achieved without recognising and encouraging stakeholders to join the collective. However, this does represent the start of what may be a crucial change in local governance, for the region and potentially more.