The Makhado Municipality, in partnership with the University of Venda, has undertaken a Ward Pilot Project to better community involvement within the Makhado Municipal area.

The project was conducted within six of the wards and has already been running for about two years, each being different from the other with regard to its people, culture, location and size. The project comes to an end on April 31, but could possibly be extended for another three years.

Wards which were selected for this process are Ward 1 Vuwani, Ward 17 Elim, Ward 20 Louis Trichardt, Ward 37 Dzanani and Ward 29 also Vuwani.

The project was originally initiated by municipal manager Mrs Faith Muthambi and Dr Joseph Francis (head of the department of rural development at Univen) which was done with funding from the Kellogg Foundation in America.

According to Dr Francis, this project was something that needed to be done, as universities around the country should play a role in social development with regard to the surrounding communities,

The pilot project’s aim was not only to bring local government and its people closer together, but to get communities to contribute to their own development and to identify needs amongst community members. So far, this project has been successful in certain of the wards only, but has allowed the municipality to qualify for final adjudication in the Impumelelo Innovations Award competition, which was started in 1999.

Ward 17 (Elim) is represented by Cllr Wilfred Mashele, who reported on this project. Mashele said the project had already achieved a viable partnership model for deepening democracy for sustainable social change at grassroots community level, involving a university, a donor organisation and the local municipality. He said it has also created democratic ventilation and talent development platforms, such as community workshops and a project magazine.

The project has also led to better-informed decision making and relevant planning through its reliability, up-to-date statistics and service delivery backlogs. Another major issue is the development of future leaders who have a good understanding of and belief in participatory development.

According to Mashele, there has also been a measurable impact with regard to bringing light and hope to the community, which means, for the first time in the pilot wards, the people are meaningfully and genuinely involved with the IDP (integrated development programme) formulation and review. Communities now understand the IDP processes and their role in it, and have a more harmonious working relationship amongst community institutions.

This project has been singled out by Univen’s management as a vital and critical portfolio to showcase contribution to community engagement when Univen will be quality audited in October 2009.