Space as an Aspirational Reprieve in the Diepsloot Township
On October 27th, 2023, Spaces for Souls led an all-women, all South African panel of place practitioners for the South Africa Regional Roundtable entitled Place Management for Social Transformation.
Placemaking may provide opportunities to improve the quality of life in communities through thoughtful, context-sensitive approaches to the enhancement of public spaces. However, in socially and spatially fragmented urban communities, placemaking initiatives that fail to respond to the specific social and economic challenges lack the depth required to actualize any meaningful improvements in the social or public spheres. In efforts to expand the boundaries of traditional place management practice, the South Africa Regional Roundtable introduced three case studies from communities across South Africa, each grappling with inadequate delivery of urban services, as well as present-day struggles connected to the former apartheid spatial planning system.
eHub Diepsloot (left) and Father Louis Blondel Centre (FLBC) (right) | Photo provided by Wot-if? Trust
Prioritizing stakeholder engagement and community empowerment, the Wot-if Trust services the Diepsloot township through programming focused on entrepreneurship, technology, creative industries, youth development, and urban sustainability. The Trust has supported over 10,000 Diepsloot residents access spaces and resources with dignity, opportunity, and choice over the last 10 years.
As a post-apartheid settlement, Diepsloot’s 1990s establishment was originally planned to be temporary. In the years since the repeal of apartheid, Diepsloot’s population has expanded and further complicated inefficient service delivery and opportunity. Situated within the Diepsloot community, the Wot-if? Trust spearheads community development in the township by bringing together public and private sector actor to actualize programming prioritized by the Diepsloot community.
A key partnership for the Wot-if? Trust lies with a religious institution that owns the Father Louis Blondel Centre (FLBC), where the Trust operates many of its programs. Within and around the Centre, the Wot-if? Trust has hosted nearly 50 SMEs, 40 women’s empowerment initiatives, and around 250 youth community members. As this community experiences the lack of the progress from post-apartheid initiatives and varied elements of multi-dimensional poverty, the Trust provides this community with free internet, technology resources, entrepreneurship training. In partnership with a private sector firm, Ericsson South Africa, the Wot-if? Trust operationalized eHUB Diepsloot, which holds a training facility, meeting rooms, content lab, recording studio, and toy library for residents to access space and equipment to experiment, innovate, and exhale.
Enabling residents to more sustainably discard their waste in a dense area lacking waste management provision, the EcoXchange targets youth to bring recyclable and compostable waste to the site to trade for food items and/or household necessities, which the Trust receives as donations from broader private and public sector actors. Furthermore, the Trust’s spaces generate elements of dignity for its users by providing free, safe, and clean sanitation to its users—a noteworthy function given most toilets in Diepsloot are outside of homes and can be shared by many families.
Ultimately, through entrepreneurship, sustainability practices, and technology access, these spaces and services allow residents to curate and experience intangible elements of their community assets, including the genius and creativity found in youth, entrepreneurs, and community members seeking opportunities for relief.
EcoXchange Center | Photo by Wot-if? Trust
LESSONS LEARNED
● Place managers must connect the intangible with physical space. As places to rest, to create, and to innovate should be afforded to every community, placemaking opportunities, even in socially and spatially fragmented contexts, truly exist everywhere.
● Centering dignity in placemaking efforts begins with place managers. Visions of access and dignity that place managers create in concert with communities can reveal synergies between private and public sector entities who are willing to financially and operationally support community-born initiatives.