Examples of how we can all live and work together
THERE are two Peninsula community projects I have engaged with over the past two weeks which show how integration can work.
One is a call to strengthen ubuMelwane, the neighbourhood, with good neighbourliness, mutual support and upliftment, and to provide – not charity and handouts – compassion and service, where possible, and even housing for the destitute.
On Monday, a group of about 30 people from the Peninsula communities met in Masiphumulele to determine how to strengthen support for the Amakhaya Ngoku housing initiative, which now houses some 325 families in impressively well-built three-storey blocks of flats.
These families were displaced after a huge fire swept away their “Masi” homes – about 400 shacks – in 2006. Nearby is the Hokisa Children’s Home and clinic for the general public and for children affected and infected by HIV/Aids.
Community stalwarts guide these two development initiatives, and the ubuMelwane group, which includes a former cabinet minister, and a multiracial mix of concerned citizens from across the Peninsula, has embraced “Masi” as one of their own. This is about integrating South Africans and exercising solidarity with those less resourced in our communities.
One of the main drivers of Masi’s development projects is Lutz van Dijk who says the negative connotation of “neighbourhood”, such as the neighbourhood watch to fight crime, is replaced with the solidarity of neighbourly harmony.
Former cabinet minister Ronnie Kasrils emphasised how Amakhaya Ngoku and Hokisa were prime examples of ubuntu which South Africans must spread.
The driver of ubuMelwane, former senior civil servant Horst Kleinschmidt, says it is about removing the mental and physical walls that exist between the adjacent communities of Fish Hoek, Ocean View and Masi.
Navy officer Bheki Mvovo chairs the housing project and coordinates a multiracial team of administrators and fundraisers.
The other example of integrating arts and culture among various socio-economic communities is the Kronendal Music Academy of Hout Bay, which celebrated its new home on Empire Street recently.
Directed and founded by musician and activist, Dwynne Griesel, (winner of the 2011 Inyathelo Philanthropy Award) who patiently grew the programme with assistance from Hout Bay citizens, this music school boasts tuition for children of all ages, and even for some adults. Its patron, Hout Bay resident and anti-apartheid activist, Dennis Goldberg, has found all sorts of resources and donations for the school, as have other community members.
As a solidarity activist, I am constantly impressed by how well South Africans can come together in the name of mutual causes, thereby dismantling the old stereotypes of race and location attached to so much of Cape Town’s apartheid history.
Capetonians can integrate, can overcome socio-economic constraints, and are making their own ubuMelwanes along the path towards harmony and existing on an equal footing.
C MARTIN Cape Town