Community Service Forums: a True Voice of the people?

[ in

]

I attended a community service forum session at the Intersections Partner Conference on Monday.

Nkwame Cedile facilitated the session.

The main question was whether the community service forums are truly reflecting and representing what they were initially supposed to be.

Nkwame describes what the community service forums are:

They are meant to facilitate development in their communities instead of being swallowed by the systems.
Most of them were formed during public discussions when the RDP was still in place.
They mainly composed of various social groups and organs of civil society.

Case Study on Khayelitsha Development Forum

This was basically about the community development forum of Khayelitsha and their chairperson Mr Zamayadwa Sogayise, who was meant to be leading people towards key developmental initiatives, but mislead the community by encouraging them to destroy state property and break the law as means of attracting government’s attention.

In a nutshell Mr Sogayise is in complete opposition to the work of the civil society organisations and NGO’s in the area. This portrays him as the leader who does not understand the mandate and the role of the community development forums, as he is seen to be his perpetuating his own agenda against the will and the wishes of the community.

Case Study on Kwa-Makhutha Clinic

Presentation – Thembinkosi Ngcobo – KMCRC

This one was completely different from the previous one, since it presented a huge successful achievement in terms of what was the main advocacy issue. The main issue was the Health issue for the community of Kwa-Makhutha, in terms of the services that were offered by the clinic. Different community organisations were mobilised for this common cause. The advocacy campaign was launched and the following were achieved;

Local clinic now opens 24 hours, 7days a week.
Ante-natal clinic has been re-furbished and clinically improved.
A well equipped VCT & ARV Rollout site was built and is now in full operation.
There is now no limited number of patients being attended per day.
There is an ambulance on standby, in case of emergency.
There is a reliable 24hour security system.

Challenges in setting up Community Service Forums

Social Groups may take time to come together, as they come from different school of thoughts and philosophical backgrounds.
Party-political dynamics may hinder progress.
Community may find it difficult to vary civil society from political parties.
Faith-based organisations and churches may become apathetic.
Community groups might be swallowed by political parties.

After the presentations, participants raised a number of concerns in as far as the community service forums go;

Who should form part of the community forums
What mandate should they carry?
How do they account and when?
How do you deal with self-interest?
How do you handle a situation where community that has its own political agenda. How do you integrate that structure to a newly-structured body?

As the group was made up of a diverse composition, some of the questions could be hardly resolved, as they carried some nature of individual social dynamics and backgrounds.

But inspite of that, many of the group members showed an interest in piloting either of the case study models, and try to see if they can work for the better in their respective communities.

Community Service Forums: a True Voice of the people?

Group description

Community Service Forums: a True Voice of the people?

Add comment