Scene 9: First Weekly Meeting Causes Confusion

Background

Our first weekly meeting with Levona, Scott, and Lorraine came at an odd time for us.  Situated soon after the meeting with Johan, but still before the sub-council meeting, we were unsure about how the time would be used. We decided on presenting some of our findings and posing questions to Levona that our group generated.

Cast of Characters

WPI Project Team
WPI Professors: Scott Jiusto, Lorraine Higgins
City Employees: Levona Powell, Reggie O’Brien, Anneline Plaaitjies, Estralita Kwalo
Student Researchers: Carin, Mekyle

Setting

The City of Cape Town Informal Settlement Department office in Ottery.

Scene

Our conversation started off primarily recapping our current progress and what we learned from the Springfield Road informal settlement.  Then, our discussion shifted to talk of the upcoming sub-council meeting and community meeting further down the road.  At the sub-council meeting, engineers Siraaj and Waleed would be present along with members of Levona’s staff and Felicity Purchase, the sub-council chair.  This meeting would be necessary before coordinating the community meeting in order to determine what will be offered as options; whether higher level reblocking and upgrading will be offered, or smaller improvement projects to entice the smaller communities to consolidate will be explored.  Our confusion lay in the communication between Johan and Levona as each presented different views on the status of the project.  Johan had stated to our advisers in their first meeting with him that this was an improvement rather than an upgrading project and that Masincedane would not be involved. However Levona was advocating for the inclusion of Masincedane in addition to the other three settlement Johan proposed.

Reflection

Although confusing, this meeting made us realize the importance of the upcoming sub-council and community meetings. It was our hope that through these meetings we would be able to gather the necessary information to development a project proposal for Johan.