2. Background
• Biography
– Sizwe Mxobo was born and bred in Khayelitsha and currently resides in Mkhonto
Square, Nyanga
– He completed his Matric in 2004 at Oscar Mpetha High School, Nyanga
– In 2005 he interned at Power Construction as a civil engineer trainee
– His fascination with community development – particularly how informal
communities could be transformed to formal settlements – inspired him to study
Town and Regional Planning at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology
(CPUT). He completed his national diploma in 2011.
• University Involvements
– Chairperson of the Planning Student Society (PSS), 2009-2010
– Student assistant for Arts and Craft Programmes in CPUT, 2007
– Volunteered for Africa Unite as Human Rights peer educator.(2009-2011)
• Awards
– Community Involvement Award, CPUT Town and Regional Planning Department,
2010.
3. Sizwe’s accomplishments to date
• Project manager of the re-blocking projects in the City of Cape Town:
– Mtshini Wam: Awarded a Gold Award at Impumelelo Social Innovations Awards 2014. This
project informed the motivation in the drafting of the City of Cape Town by-law policy on re-
blocking in November 2013. It has been discussed in numerous academic publications
– Flamingo Crescent: Sizwe prepared the layout design and project managed the re-blocking
of 104 structures in an informal settlement off Lansdowne Road. New
– Kukutown: Sizwe prepared the layout design and project managed the re-blocking of 22
structures in an informal settlement in Kensington.
• Partnership facilitator in Stellenbosch Municipality
– Managing various projects in the informal settlement Langrug, which was awarded the SAPI
Award in the Community category at Planning African 2012 conference
– Co-design process in the WASH (Water, Sanitaiton, Hygiene) facility
• Advocacy and research:
– Local coordinator of two PhD students: Tim Budge (Deakon Uni, Australia); Sophia Pan
(UCT)
– Community liaison in a UWC-PLAAS research team on social protests related to piped water
service delivery
• Design and Innovation:
– Team member in the Density Syndicate run by African Centre for Cities and International
New Town Institute (Netherlands)
– Facilitator of Better Living Design Challenge in looking for new housing solutions
4. Shifting Community mindset through Dialogue
• Host community dialogue with the Informal Settlement Network (ISN) and range of
communities, about their community development plans.
• Shifting mindset communities to understand structural poverty and government
process.
5. Transforming our communities through
planning and design
•Working with communities in co-create
their communities Layout and Re-
blocking plan.
• Use creative, practical and engaging
process to design community lay-outs
6. Building Capacity through Community Implementation
•Project manage implementation of community
re-blocking process, with the key aim of build
community capacity and community leaders
and woman lead their own process of building
up their community.
•Design implementation process that ensures
community accountability and engaging
process.
7. Advocating for the urban poor
Advocating for urban poor rights to
National and Provincial leaders
government officials.
Facilitating studios between communities and
university students, and ensuring outcomes of the
studios are used as tools for community upgrading
process.
8. Connecting Communities and Government
At the cold face of negotiation between local government and urban poor communities.
9. Project Highlights
• Work Experience
• Position: Community Planner at Community
Organisation Resource Centre (CORC) since 2011.
• Role: CORC technical support for informal
settlement upgrading in areas such as community
mobilization, attending and facilitating
community meetings, capacity building, assisting
settlements to prepare development plans,
engaging City officials around service delivery and
coordinating with consultants
10.
11.
12. Flamingo Re-blocking.
Dignified Spaces
Flamingo Crescent
• 104 structures re-blocked into six
clusters
• From 16 chemical toilets to 104
flush toilets
• From 2 taps to 52 taps, shared
between two households
• Long term partnerships secured:
City of Cape Town, CPUT, Habitat
for Humanity SA, WPI (USA)
• New ECD Centres
• New public spaces and pedestrian
paths formally paved
13. Formal/Informal
Kukutown
• 22 structures re-blocked in
Kensington neighbourhood
• From 4 chemical toilets to 22 flush
toilets and taps
• 40sqm erven demarcation for
each family
• Long term partnerships secured:
City of Cape Town and Habitat for
Humanity SA
•Opportunity for courtyard gardens
14. Conclusion.
• I think urban planning has the power to change our societies. However, this is one of
the professions that is perceived as being distant from communities, especially low
income and informal settlement communities.
• In addressing the urban problems of our times, I believe that planning should be
moving forward towards greater focus on community co-design and joint planning
• Since 2004 with the inclusion of informal settlement upgrading in Breaking New
Ground, and again in 2010 with the creation of the National Upgrading Support
Programme (NUSP) and the Presidential agreement to upgrade 400,000 well located
informal settlement households, there has been a shift towards greater
participatory planning and community capacity building.
• The National Development Plan 2040 also states that active citizenship will
transform the delivery of sustainable human settlements.
• To me, public participation is more than just attending stakeholder meetings, but a
shift towards meaningful processes of co-design and joint planning
• Since high school, I have wondered about what it would take to transform an informal
community to a formal settlement.
• My work shows how planners can should work with communities, and how this can
influence the training of the next generation of urban planners and create active
citizens
