22 June 2006
As part of the World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought, Mpumalanga
MEC for Agriculture and Land Administration, Madala Masuku will visit several
LandCare projects at the Mmamethlake Community in Moretele - Nkangala. The
visit will look at the community driven projects which deal with methods of
avoiding land degradation, land rehabilitation, tree planting and water and
soil conservation. The MEC will address the community as part of the 12th
anniversary of the adoption of the United Nations Convention to Combat
Desertification (UNCCD).
The drive is spearheaded by the MmaPhake LandCare forum and supported by the
community. This year, the MmaPhake LandCare forum, has decided to place these
issues squarely in the public domain, starting with our commemoration of World
Day to Combat Desertification and Drought, under the theme âLand Degradation
waits for no manâ. The focus group for this year's activity will be learners,
educators and out of school youth.
Event Details:
Venue: Mmametlhake Community (Moretele)
Date: 23 June 2006
Time: 10h00 am
The community serves as an example on how the development state approach can
be applied in practice. These development efforts on dealing with Land
degradation shows this country are potential for sustainable livelihood and
growth. This activity is designed to focus the world's attention on issues
pertaining to land desertification (degradation) and drought. A number of
schools and community groups are also involved in the initiative.
This event also coincides with the celebration of the 2006 Africa Public
Service Day (APSD) under the theme â âBuilding an ethnical Public Service for
improved service delivery in Africaâ. For the Mmaphake Community, they
symbolise on how the empowered citizenry especially in rural areas can drive
their own initiatives for the betterment of their lives.
Background of Mmaphake LandCare Forum
The MmaPhake Community LandCare forum was formed in December 2003. The forum
emanated from a community meeting, which was attended by various local
stakeholders, where farmers were raising their challenges in term of
Agricultural production plans. The Mmaphake Community LandCare Forum, had
interest of establishing LandCare projects which will be self âsustainable and
would have impact towards the improvement of socio-economic status of the
community.
The forum members in achieving their goals and objectives had several
challenges that must be addressed prior to the projects implementation stage.
Through a Logical Framework Analysis the following challenges were
captured:
* Lack of knowledge and skills,
* Lack of project ownership by the broader community,
* Lack of cohesion amongst various community groups (Lack of Partnership and
Low Self Esteem),
* Less or minimal resources (natural & others) available.
The idea of hosting or embarking on the awareness days was then developed as
a strategy towards sensitising the community about the challenges the broader
community is faced with and encouraging them to take a positive step forward
together. This would be achieved if the community have a strong/united
community networks and work together in a collaborative manner, through all
these challenges mentioned above.
Mmaphake LandCare Awareness Day
The MmaPhake community LandCare forum members started in 2004 to rollout
LandCare community road shows. To date the Forum has completed 50 community
road shows within and outside the Moretele area. The Forum had an opportunity
to empower themselves by visiting the two of the best practice projects in
Limpopo that is Lwatshatsimu and Korringkopies LandCare projects towards
expanding their knowledge.
Awareness Day Focus and Issues
The community had experienced a decline in their natural resources and the
Agricultural Production income has decline. This is due to the following
reasons:
* Losses of bio-diversity: The wild animals have migrated from the local
natural reserves. This is due to uncontrollable animal pouching, de-bushing of
the reserves and damaged infrastructure.
* De-bushing of the available grazing camps: The grazing areas are badly
damaged as the fencing materials are stolen, trees chopped for firewood, sand
mining and extinction of native plants.
* Weeds and Alien invasion: Agricultural land (crop and animal) heavily invaded
by alien species.
* Uncontrollable veld fires: Most of the Agricultural area are rapidly burned
and with no permission.
* Theft: The infrastructure available is badly vandalized, as communities have
no ownership of the existing developments. The animals are just roaming around
the public road this lead to high number of road accidents of which they have
to compensate the victims themselves.
Mmaphake Community LandCare Centre
The forum through organised programme and objectives build a community
LandCare centre. This centre is the first community LandCare centre in South
Africa. The purpose of the centre is to empower the local Moretele community
with knowledge regarding LandCare issues. The centre will also serve a
community resource centre and demonstration of the best practices regarding
natural resource utilisations and management.
Participants have visited the centre during its construction phase up to
date from the following countries: Australia, Philippines, Uganda and Kenya.
This centre is the first of its kind and countries are interested to
understanding how the forum through its organised structure managed to achieve
this far. The LandCare Centre will officially be opened on the 4th of August
2006.
Enquiries:
Freddy Ngobe
Cell: 082 821 4148
Tel: (013) 766 6086
Issued by: Department of Agriculture and Land administration, Mpumalanga
Provincial Government
22 June 2006
Source: Gauteng Provincial Government (http://www.mpumalanga.gov.za)
