Role players take first step to improve safety of the Genadendal community

Cape Forum, AfriForum and the TRANCRAA Transformation Committee of the Genadendal community joined forces in February to improve the community’s safety over the long term through a joint comprehensive safety assessment facilitated by AfriForum’s community safety experts. This is the first step in the process of establishing contingency plans and the community’s ability to implement the plans themselves and has included natural disasters, such as fires and floods, and crime.

The Genadendal Transformation Committee was established to ensure that the ownership of the community’s land, currently held in trust by the state, is transferred to the community itself in terms of the Transformation of Certain Rural Areas Act 94 of 1998 (better known as the TRANCRAA Act). The Genadendal community is currently facing challenges with drug-related crimes and illegal land occupation particularly.

“Genadendal, also known among the community as Farm 39, is divided into eight sectors: agriculture, utilities, education and training, health and welfare, sport and culture, faith and disadvantaged groups, youth and finally the residents’ association, which includes safety and infrastructure. None of the community sectors can function well if safety is not in place. We are grateful and positive that we were able to begin a joint process to strengthen our community’s own safety capacity to make a better future possible for us and our children,” says George Juries, Vice-chairperson of the Transformation Committee.

“Establishing good relations and cooperation between cultural communities and strengthening community self-reliance is essential for the prosperous and peaceful coexistence of cultural communities in the country. This joint initiative is an example of how sustainable solutions to community challenges can be found at grassroots level through cooperation based on mutual recognition and respect that focuses on practical outcomes,” says Barend Uys, Head of Intercultural Relations and Cooperation at AfriForum.

According to Bernard Pieters, Head of Community Activation at Cape Forum, the process is a community-driven initiative that aims to restore and strengthen dignity, accountability and local capacity. It serves as another example of civil society actors joining hands for the benefit of communities outside the party-political system. “We are all part of a community of communities and by working together, we as community builders can make a real impact at the grassroots level,” concludes Pieters.