Resilience in communities to stand up against injustices, the exploitation of power, and inadequate service delivery has been a common thread throughout the year. Could this be a sign of the approaching local elections? A dynamic of having officials in communities with spades in hands near a waste dump captured as “ploughing back to the community”, whereas we see communities like in Mfuleni standing together in Celebrating World Clean Up day – a campaign that The Ithalomso World Clean-Up Campaign led, championing waste management and awareness around health and safety for the communities more especially young kids as the clean-up was at one for the local parks in the area.
Despite facing challenges, South Africa offers inspiring examples of local innovation and collective action.
To mark Clean-Up and Recycling Week SA 2025, the City of Cape Town has launched a series of innovative, community-driven waste minimisation and recycling pilot projects targeting vulnerable communities.
Spearheaded by Alderman Grant Twigg, the City’s Mayoral Committee Member for Urban Waste Management, the initiative responds to the reality that while households generate most of the waste, many areas, particularly informal settlements, lack effective recycling systems or separation-at-source options. These pilots aim to empower communities to take the lead in managing and recycling their own waste, fostering sustainable practices from the ground up.
The right to a clean and safe environment does not end there. Still, it is the responsibility of South Africans to protect and care for the environment, in collaboration with the government, by preserving its conservation, ecology and wildlife, as well as ensuring the well-being of its people.
When the Municipality of Cape Town or State-Owned Enterprises (like Eskom) authorities, conduct community engagement, they typically make decisions unilaterally without considering communities’ inputs from the start, rather than arriving at the eleventh-hour imposing “strategies and plans” that’ll help communities with housing, water and energy crises they face – that oftentimes do not speak to their real struggles.
Officials struggle to engage in the debate about how and where the processes of the Environmental Impact Assessments are systematic. These processes are used to evaluate the potential environmental risks of proposed (energy) projects before they are implemented, ensuring that environmental factors are integrated into decision-making. There is little knowledge in affected communities about how these assessments get approval.
However, with hope on the horizon, provided by activists who care and push back by advancing information and capacity building – we see this in partnering with communities in the Kamiesberg region of the Northern Cape. In this remote, resilient landscape, people’s deep connection to the land stands in sharp contrast to the social and environmental challenges too often overlooked by the rest of the country.
Recognising solidarity, another aspect of pushback for example, how communities in Nyanga, are combating the stigma of Gender-Based Violence. They are engaging the police and social workers in meaningful dialogue and emphasising how communities should unite to create intentional and real change by empowering and educating people about the, their lived experiences and issues they face every day.
The significance of this lies in how deeply socioeconomic challenges like GBV intersect with the climate crises, such as energy poverty and water shortages. Although not all the data is fully integrated, there is a clear connection between the vulnerability of marginalised genders and the efforts needed to build climate resilience. Imagine young girls walking miles just to collect water, increasing their risk of assault. Single mothers are displaced from their homes due to extreme weather. Even queer communities are often excluded from the conversation when disasters occur. These aren’t just statistics; they are people whose lives are at risk when we fail to link social justice with climate action.
Civil society and community leaders have had a substantial impact in negotiating in these meetings, representing the voiceless and othered. In doing so, they receive backlash not only for creating a divide between the government and the people, limiting access to influence, but also from the same communities they are standing up for. Not to put it negatively, but one can say it comes with the territory. This is because the lack of morale in people has erupted into an uproar when these leaders come bearing news, whether good or bad, for communities to take action. On the other hand, people want to incorporate resistance and resilience into their everyday lives.
This resilience and resistance are defined by women taking charge of setting up gardens and community initiatives; young individuals changing the status quo by creating spaces for their peers to get access to information and opportunities and honouring elders as they give back knowledge lost that helped them in their era.
The aim is to integrate into innovative technologies and systems, decision-making spaces, and a joint agenda for an inclusive future. We are starting to see communities become more aware and define their own power and influence. Education and advancement in people’s rights and policy influence continue today as more people come to understand the climate crisis and the country’s stance through engagement with Nationally Determined Contributions and involvement in national policies and multilateral spaces.
We are starting to recognise the power of storytelling as a force for narrative building and participatory engagement with local government, ensuring that representatives are elected based on inclusivity and advocacy, rather than being made into tokenistic pawns. We must ensure that the resilience work already underway is amplified through capacity building and information sharing. More importantly, this involves ensuring that access to resources is not hindered by bureaucratic red tape but is facilitated by institutions and bodies that understand socioeconomic dynamics.
Communities in Mfuleni and Kamiesberg remind us that solutions are already within reach. When the community take ownership, youth are engaged, and partnerships are formed, even the most neglected parks, wetlands, and neighbourhoods can be transformed. Every cleanup, every lesson, and every collaboration contributes to safer, healthier, and more resilient spaces, proving that change starts at home, with the people who know their land best.
We are putting forward on the agenda a future that transitions into co-created narratives on resilience, Afrocentric and Indigenous work, and the role that women, youth, the queer community, and people with disabilities play in shaping transformative policies of change. More importantly, shifting the gears of power to where it really matters, the people.
#PushForward4Equality
by Mthembukazi Bavuma