BARCELONA HOUSEHOLD
ENUMERATION REPORT
GUGULETHU, CAPE TOWN, APRIL 2010
Informal Settlement Network,
Barcelona Community Leadership and
Community Organisation Resource Centre
BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES OF ENUMERATIONS
The housing backlog has been increasing every year in post-apartheid South Africa despite
the housing efforts by Government, and the lives of those who dwell in those informal
settlements have not improved at all because of their increasing number and difficulties in
managing any upgrade. CORC has been helping a growing number of communities to
participate in an inclusive process of informal upgrading. This is especially motivated by the
realisation that in our major cities, where the urbanisation process has been steady since
1994, the large majority of the vulnerable groups in practice are excluded from the
Government’s current subsidy system, even when a movement like the Federation of the
Urban Poor (CORC’s traditional partner) is active to secure a number of such subsidies for
the empowered poor.
Thanks to CORC’s efforts to promote and sustain the process, different social formations in
all informal settlements gather and organise themselves into a stronger “confederation”, or
network whereby members keep their personality and autonomy. In five major cities (Cape
Town, Durban, Port Elizabeth, Johannesburg/Ekurhuleni and Kimberley) these dialogue
sessions gave rise to the formation of the Informal Settlement Network (ISN) – that brings
together not only representatives of informal settlements but also different movements of the
urban poor (e.g. there is even an alliance with organised backyard dwellers) in a united front
in their fight against poverty. The main strategy is a constructive dialogue with government
towards community-driven development which is effective to address the main needs of the
majority, affordable and socially sustainable.
This approach of (incremental) settlement upgrading in urban areas is a phenomenon largely
used in Thailand where organised groups in informal settlements take part in developing
themselves through an alliance with the government. The Thai government realised the
importance of cooperating with the poor communities in this initiative mainly due to the fact
that the poor are better placed to know their urgent needs and also in a better position to know
the problems in their communities. In this sense, they would not be seen just as an urban
problem but also form a part of the solution. In the Thai government’s development puzzle,
this cooperation with the poor has been effective and has inspired CORC to propose the
methodology to the South African informal settlement leaders.
ISN has bought into the approach and embraced a concept of settlement improvements where
development occurs in stages and has been designed in a way that ensures that even the very
poor are not left out in the infrastructure improvements. A fairly important step in the process
that CORC and ISN would like to see in this country is the commitment from the Thai
government to the poor to help them gain security of tenure on the land where they live on
(with appropriate compensation to the current owners, if necessary), so that they are not
exposed to the problems likely to be faced by those who live in informal settlements like
eviction threats and limited sanitation services. This is followed by the provision and or
improvement of basic services that can later be built upon and upgraded.
Securing tenure in informal settlements is always a daunting task, but if all the involved
parties in the development work collectively ensure that there is a genuine participation in
planning and then support the smooth implementation of development, the latter is worth the
efforts.
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In 2009 a partnership was established between the City of Cape Town, CORC and the
leadership of ISN, to embark on a multiple-site pilot project to test the methodology
mentioned above. In each of the pilot sites, the first step for any development has been
identified in the data gathering about population and about the site itself, and its existing
meagre infrastructure.
This is a brief report of the implementation of the household enumeration in the third pilot
project of the upgrading informal settlements initiative mentioned above.
The upgrading is to be undertaken in the perspective that does not focus only on the provision
of basic services like water and sanitation, but extends to improved shelters, too, even though
still informal (shacks). The residents of the selected initial pilot projects, Sheffield Road (in
Philippi), TT Section (in Khayelitsha) and Barcelona (within the Gugulethu township
boundaries), have always expected that government would provide them with basic services
and adequate housing. But they realised, in the interaction with NGO and officials, that there
were neither immediate nor near-future housing development plans for their settlements.
Therefore they availed themselves for other options.
This report witnesses relevant steps towards development that can be taken by the community
itself, in particular the understanding that slum dwellers should not be seen as passive, but
should be considered as an active force that can and will contribute to the solution of their
problems in their communities. This is further reflected by the demonstration of the
community’s capability to conduct a successful community survey. The methodology is
described below, but it must be highlighted that in order to realise the survey properly and to
make good use of it, the approach envisages the support and the common planning with the
Informal Settlement Network, the City and CORC as technical partner and social facilitator.
The data collected and elaborated is owned by the community and should be seen as an asset
of both parties for the action expected from Government, which will hopefully prove that
community-driven enumerations are a useful tool not just to draw in the (otherwise passive)
beneficiaries into play, but to combine their work with professionals, government and support
organisations into a common platform for collective planning and implementation of the
general objectives of the project.
The information reported in this document is obviously only a general picture of Barcelona,
therefore there will be more additions and updates to the database and to the document, if
possible with the continuous active contribution by the community, in order to have it as a
strong tool for the improvement of the living conditions of this community.
This document outlines the methodology of data collection and capturing used in this
exercise; analyses the major findings and basic statistics elaborated in the enumeration
exercise.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Acknowledgements
Introduction
Methodology
Key findings
Analysis
Graphs and Tables
Annexure: Questionnaire used in the enumeration
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
A great deal of volunteering has been applied when conducting this enumeration and its
elaborations; most of the people involved were from other informal settlements. Different
organisations and communities which make up ISN provided the volunteers for the whole
exercise. They have all participated in various ways especially on the planning phase, data
collection, filing, mapping and capturing.
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INTRODUCTION
Barcelona informal settlement is situated 15 km east of Cape Town CBD on a strip of land
running in parallel to N2 in Gugulethu. Like most Cape Town informal settlements, the
settlement’s sprawling growth was fuelled by the influx of people from rural areas and other
residential areas of Cape Town in search of a better life and employment opportunities. The
limited chances of affordable housing in the low earning class have forced most of the people
to resort to slum dwelling which can be afforded with their income.
Among other challenges for a decent daily life of the residents, this settlement has some
sanitation services which were installed by the City council but have always been subject to
vandalism hence highly affecting the carrying capacities of these services especially bucket
toilets. The community has progressively realised the lengthy period which they are likely to
wait before there can be any significant improvement to these services. Due to this possibility
of a prolonged period of any development, the community leaders approached by ISN got
involved in pilot projects where they would be part of planning and implementation of
developmental exercises for their settlement, in strong partnership with the government.
In March 2010, the Barcelona Community Task Team in collaboration with CORC and ISN
conducted a household enumeration in the community as a way of getting the actual data
about the life of the people who stay on this rather inhospitable land strip. As mentioned
above, the main function of this enumeration initiative was to equip and strengthen the
Community Task Team in their starting negotiations with the Government about service
delivery (through pilot projects) and also to enhance more community participation in the
newly introduced slum upgrading approach. This community realised the need for some
improvements in terms of water supply and shack improvement whilst waiting (with no
clarity about a time frame and no certainty) for a better house from the government. Like in
two previous enumerations conducted under pilot projects, the enumeration is pivotal as it
helps to bring on board all the active parties towards getting a collective way forward in
community developmental issues. As a mobilisation effort, the exercise allowed to introduce
the concept of community (daily) savings, a social developmental tool that CORC and its
allies have been constantly promoting.
Hopefully this report, too, will provide a useful tool for strengthening the community
representatives in defining their community and its issues through the survey exercise they
have recently completed. The kind of information collected may also help to understand
where to start from, for better life conditions in informal settlements.
The whole enumeration exercise provided the Barcelona community with the necessary tools
and opportunity to be part in the planning and implementation of the piloted incremental
improvements in their community. This process helped the community heir significant input
into the whole process and suggested to look beyond the concept of waiting for long periods
in anticipation of a complete house from the government.
During the course of the enumeration, a number of observations about the settlement were
made about the demographic profile and different services rendered to the community. The
survey targeted all households found in Barcelona and it was observed that the whole (selfcounted) community is made up of at least 6600 people, who make up 2161 families. These
figures do not accurately represent the total population unless we take into consideration that
a further 210 households did not participate in the enumeration due to various reasons.
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However, they represent an image of the community that is closer to reality than any other
available.
METHODOLOGY
Prior to the data collection exercise, CORC, ISN and the community leadership held several
meetings in February 2010 in preparation for the enumeration. The community leadership
and representatives of ISN were to be used as an instrument for mobilising the community
about the whole scope of this exercise. Furthermore, numerous community meetings were
held with the community at large about the enumeration for more clarity on issues related to
the enumeration.
Questionnaire development
The questionnaire was developed from the previous enumeration exercises conducted in the
first two pilot projects in 2010: Sheffield Road and TT Section. Based on the outcomes of the
first two enumerations under pilot projects, many consultations and discussions to decide on
what to be included in, and left out of the first enumeration questionnaires, took place.
Further improvements were made to the previous questionnaire by the community in their
weekly meetings so as to ensure that more relevant and comprehensive information about
their community be collected. Below is the structure of the information requested to each
household, while in annexure a copy of the questionnaire can be found.
DOMAIN OF SURVEY
Household details
Employment
Nature of house
Disaster history
Migration
ITEMS INCLUDED IN THE
QUESTIONNAIRE
- identity and gender of household head
- his/her age
- number of families occupying the structure
- number of young people in the house
- number of people attending school
- number of adults staying in the house
- number of aged persons in the house
- number of people employed per household
- type of employment
- grants received
- monthly basic expenses
- transport and costs
- shopping options
- type of house
- area of house
- number of rooms
- self-built / purchased
- disasters experienced by the household
- period lived in the community
- place of residence before Barcelona
- period lived in Cape Town
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Sanitation
- type of toilet available to the household
- number of people using the toilet
- collection of waste from common bins
The whole enumeration team was made up of three teams: Measuring Team, Numbering
Team and the Data Collection Team. The community was divided into 13 different sections
marked by the main paths in the settlement. All these sections were numbered in an
alphabetical order from A to M.
This survey was structured around one main code for all the shacks, so each household was
clearly identified by the new numbering and measuring on the front part of the shack. prior to
the emancipation of data collection exercise, the Community Task Team, CORC fieldworkers
and some ISN members conducted a preparatory workshop to technically equip the
enumerators with the necessary skills for doing the survey.
During the survey, all the enumerators were instructed to collect the information from people
in their structures which were measured and numbered only by the enumeration numbering
team. In the SDI enumeration methodology, enumerators were instructed to collect
information only through face to face interviews with household heads. For this reason, all
the three teams included at least some Barcelona community members. The inclusion of these
local members in these teams was also significant because they had better knowledge of their
community and all its sections. This increased the level of accuracy in the survey and also
that the survey may not to be seen as an external intrusion and potentially as a tool to favour
the informal settlement upgrading initiative.
For the survey component of the exercise, enumerators surveyed every structure in each and
every section in Barcelona. All the questions in the questionnaire were generally completed
in 10 – 15 minutes. All answers provided by the respondents during the interview were
confidential. During the interview, the respondents were assured that there would be no
retribution for any of their answers they provided in the survey and also ensured that there
was nothing to be done to them for turning down some questions and or turning down the
interview.
During the data collection, substantive efforts were made to ensure the accuracy of the data
which were collected. Despite all the stringent measures taken to ensure all the accuracy
expected, there is a limitation which was met in the process: there were some households
which were not easily accessible due to long period travelling. In few cases, they felt
uncomfortable or scared and did not provide any information.
Fieldwork
The point in time data collection was conducted by the enumerators for a period of three
weeks in all the household heads which were in the community during the three week period.
Data collection exercise was mainly done during the day; however, there were some
situations where data was collected at night by the community enumerators mainly because
some people could not be reached during the day due to their work commitments.
Data
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A database of all the collected information was created by the community volunteers for a
period of two weeks. A report consisting of frequency tables and graphs were produced for
the variables in the questionnaire. Prior to the analysis of the data, the data was first subjected
to frequency and cross-tabulation analysis to minimise data entry errors. However, errors may
still be affecting accuracy, due to data entry problems or inconsistence in answers provided
during the data collection exercise. The final data set analysis was done through the 2007
Microsoft Excel version. The data presented is for the whole community and for some
variables the data is presented separately.
KEY FINDINGS
Key results of the enumeration are shown in the following pages, mainly in the synthetic
form of graphs and tables.
Below is the settlement profile1 showing the brief statistical picture established through the
enumeration.
“Slum” Name
Barcelona
Age of Settlement
16 years
Structures
Informal residential units
Population (counted)
6600 (2161 families). The community
recognises the leadership of a Task Team
Not enumerated
Estimated 210 households
Ownership of the land and status
No. of Individual Pit Toilets
No. of community toilet blocks (for
bucket system)
Number of families using bucket
system or open space
Water supply. Ratio of people served
by each tap (average)
Most urgent needs
1
City-owned land. No eviction or
relocation threat to the community
160, used by families who are also
obliged to use the bucket system or
“bush”
166 functional; many and uncounted non
functional toilets (due to vandalism)
Bucket system: 2074 families
Open air (“bush”): 87 families
1 water tap per 471 people
(more, if we count the non enumerated
families)
1 water tap per 154 households
Electricity, water, toilets, and land
rehabilitation to reduce flooding
Settlement Profile format adapted from Ahmad Nagar Settlement Profiling, India (2009)
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ANALYSIS
In the enumeration exercise in Barcelona, it was realised that the settlement is only constituted by
shacks for residential purposes (few retail spots) and the lack of basic services is appalling.
Nobody in the community dares to define the living conditions in the settlement as good or even
acceptable; therefore a permanent solution to this situation has to be worked out and as mentioned
above, there is acknowledgment that the government and the community have to engage
constructively and creatively. The information contained in this report was gathered with the
main hope of stimulating this discussion between the community, government and other active
parties involved in trying to bring out any possible solution to the community’s long standing
problems and upgrading.
The entire community is made up of 2161 households housing a total of 6600 people. All
households depend on the shack as their only form of shelter available to them. The few
structures and the water drainage facilities are extremely poor.
From the results, it can be acknowledged that the growth of this informal settlement has been
highly accelerated by high influx of people migrating from rural areas for better economic
opportunities. These low income families who have migrated into urban areas particularly in
the last decades have occupied vacant lands and constructed informal settlements for
accommodation. More than half of the respondents indicated that they came direct from the
Eastern Cape rural areas into Barcelona, the other half reflected that they have been staying
other residential areas within the Cape Metropolis and other provinces.
In terms of water supply, the whole settlement is only served by 14 water functional taps
(they are 15 but one was vandalised), which means that 1 water tape supplies a total of 471
people (more, if we count the ones in the about 200 families not enumerated). Hence water
services have to be prioritised in the upgrading engagements. The ratio of 1 water tap to 154
households is critical by any standard.
The water supply problem is combined with poor sanitation: though there are 160 self-made
pit toilets, 87 families state that they normally use the “bush”, i.e. the open space squeezed
between the N2 highway and the settlement and the remaining 2074 answers indicate the
bucket system (through the only 166 not vandalised toilet booths) that national Government
has committed various times already to eradicate, but is still the only solution for so many in
the country.
The urbanisation of poverty is another problem that acutely affects informal settlements,
51.8% of the household heads are not employed: this implies that they survive on different
social welfare grants from the government. The other 48.2% are employed household heads,
however, it is clear that even though employed, most of them have low paying jobs. 55% of
the employed people work as full time workers, whilst 38% are part-time workers, while the
remaining 7% state they are “self-employed”.
The Barcelona community contributes more than R2.2 million rand per month to the city’s
economy. This figure provides market-related justification to the community’s right to
contribute actively in the service delivery discussions, upgrading planning and development
of the area where they have been staying for an average of eight years.
Most of the employed household heads currently find their workplaces in far away areas from
their communities meaning that that have to pay for transport for them to access their work
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places. Poverty is maximised especially to those who travel by train since they have to make
a double payment for transport per day, mainly because the nearest train station is not located
in a walking distance from the settlement. For the 697 who depend on train for transport, they
first pay for local taxis which drop them at the train station. On average, each household pays
at least R25 per day for transport to and from their work places.
Residents of this settlement have not been spared from the informal settlement phenomenon
of disasters especially fire and flooding. The most dominant disaster in this specific
community is flooding, which is an annual winter experience in the community. From the
entire household surveyed in the enumeration, 1278 have had a flooding experience. 150
households have experienced fire disasters. In this situation, there is clearly a great need for
flooding preparation and mitigation rather than ex-post emergency interventions.
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GRAPHS AND TABLES
DEMOGRAPHIC OVERVIEW
Population by age group
40.0
35.0
30.0
25.0
20.0
15.0
10.0
5.0
0.0
1-6 years
7-13 years
14-18 years
19-35 years
36-50 years
51-65 years
1-6 years 7-13 years
14-18
years
19-35
years
36-50
years
51-65
years
66+ years
66+ years
These people make up a total of 2161 families; this however excludes 210 households which
were not enumerated. The graph below also reflects the population distribution by age group
and the total population.
Age group
%
Frequency
1-6 years
7-13 years
14-18 years
19-35 years
36-50 years
51-65 years
66+ years
16.5
11.5
11.5
37.8
15.8
5.8
1.1
1086
757
758
2496
1046
382
75
Total
(100%)
6600
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ECONOMIC OVERVIEW
The graph below reflects the respondents’ employment status of the economically active
people in the settlement.
Employment analysis
53.0
52.0
51.0
50.0
49.0
48.0
47.0
46.0
51.8
48.2
Employed
Unemployed
The distribution of the types of employment the working people are involved in is shown in
the chart below: more people are employed as full time workers while the lowest occupy the
self employed category. 3473 people from the entire community receive some form of
income on monthly bases.
Type of employment
Self
employed
7%
Full time
55%
Part time
38%
Related to employment is the grant reception in the settlement; the chart below shows the
percentages of grants received from the social welfare department for their daily up keep. The
three main slices are the Child Grant (85%), Pensions (6%) and Disability Grants (6%).
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Social Welfare Grants – distribution
refugee
0%
pension
6%
disabilit
y
6%
other
3%
child
support
85%
Monthly Expenses
The table and graph below intend to show how the average monthly expenses of the
community are distributed among the various items.
Item
Food
Electricity
Transport
Rent/ Maintenance
School Fees
Clothing
Water
Other items
Total
Amount
R 1,075,386
R 195,104
R 282,183
R 49,908
R 218,582
R 814,231
R 708
R 39,176
R 2,675,278
%
40.2
7.29
10.55
1.87
8.17
30.44
0.03
1.46
% allocated to each item
Other items Water
2%
0%
Clothing
30%
Transport
11%
School Fees Rent/
8% maintenance
Food
40%
Electricity
7%
2%
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HOUSE TENURE
Below is a table which shows the status of ownership of the shacks which the households are
staying in. Most of the shacks are self built by the people who are staying there, only a small
percentage is that of those who are renting from other people. 18 of the household heads
indicated that they were once approved for a housing subsidy in the past.
Tenure
%
Households
Self-built structure
86.30
1865
Purchased shack
6.94
150
Renting
0.37
8
No response
6.39
138
Total
(100%)
2161
LENGTH OF RESIDENCE IN THE SETTLEMENT
44% of the households indicated that they have been staying in the settlement for a period
ranging from 5 – 10 years.
Period of stay in Barcelona
< 5yrs
5 -10 yrs
9% > 16 yrs
11-15 yrs
16+ yrs
24% < 5 yrs
23% 11-15
yrs
44% 5-10 yrs
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COMMUNITY ORGANISATION RESOURCE CENTRE (CORC)
BARCELONA COMMUNITY (GUGULETHU) ENUMERATION
This enumeration survey collects information on housing conditions, expenditures (and
income if possible), employment and sanitation in your community. Please co-operate with
the enumerator to fill in this questionnaire.
This form asks for the following:
 Basic information about the people who are living in your house
 Specific information about this house and its occupancy
 Specific information about sanitation services and health conditions.
Thank you for your cooperation.
1. Household Details and Data
Shack/House Number
1.1 Head of Household:
Surname ________________________________
ID number (only if you wish to provide it):
Names _________________________________
___________________________________________
Gender of the head of the household: Male
Female
1.2 Age of the owner
1.3 How many families stay in your house?
1
1.4 How many people in the house are… (i) 0 - 6 years
2
3
(iv) 18 – 35 years
(ii) 7 – 14 years
(v) 36 – 64 years
(iii) 15 –17 years
(vi) 65 + years
1.5 How many people live in your house?
1.6 How many people in the house attend school? (Pre-school to high school & tertiary level)
1
2
3
4+
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2. Employment, Income & Expense
2.1 How many people are employed in the house?
1
2
3
4+
2.2 What type of employment are they involved in?
How many
Self Employed
How many
Part time/Casual
How many
Full Time
If unemployed, detail skills owned ____________________________________________________
2.3 Do you receive any kind of a welfare grant?
Yes
No
2.4 What kind of grant do you receive?
Disability
Child support
Refugee
Pension
Other
2.5 How many people have any form of income in your house?
1
2
3
4+
2.6 How much are the main expenses per month?
1. Food
R
2. Electricity
R
3. Transport
R
4. Rent/Maintenance
R
5. School fees
R
6. Clothing
R
7. Water
R
8. Other items
R
2.7 What type of transport do you use when going to work?
Private
Taxi
Bus
Train
2.8 How far is the place of employment (or where the household head gets the income)?
(Hours, Minutes of TRAVEL or WALK)
____ Hrs ____ min
2.9 How much do you pay per day in transport?
R
15
2.10 Where do you do your shopping?
1. Philippi Shopping Mall
2. Gugulethu Mall
3. Nyanga Junction Shopping mall
4. Other
3. Nature of house you live in
3.1 Type of house:
Independent Shack
Backyard dwelling
.
3.2 What is the size of your house?
MT
X
.
MT [e.g. 3.50 m x 2.95 m]
3.3 How many rooms does your house have?
1
2
3
3.4 Is this house yours?
4+
YES Self-built
NO, I’m renting
YES Purchased?
NO, the owner is family/friend (not paying)
3.5 Do you own a car?
Yes
No
3.6 If yes, where do you park? (i) Private garage
(ii) Drive Way
(iii) Other
4. Eligibility for Housing Subsidy
4.1 Were you ever approved for a housing subsidy?
Yes
No
4.2 Would you like to state your income level for the purpose of understanding how many
households in the community can apply for subsidies?
R
5. Disaster & Relocation History
5.1 Disaster History
(a) Have you ever experienced the following?
(i) Fire Disaster
Yes
No
how many times?
(ii) Flooding
Yes
No
how many times?
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(iii) Evictions
Yes
No
how many times?
5.2 Migration History
Year/s
(i) How long have you lived in Barcelona?
ii) Where were you living before you came here? ___________________________________
iii) How long have you lived in Cape Town?
Year/s
iv) Foreign National?
6. Sanitation
6.1 Which toilet do you use?
(i) Water System (flush)
(ii) How many people use this toilet?
About _______ people
(iii) Bucket System
__
(iv) How often is the bucket__
emptied?
____________times p/week
__
6.2 How many times is the __
refuse (Black Bags) collected in your community?
pe
op twice a week
Once a Week
3 times a week
le
Once a month
twice a month
or NEVER?
___________________________________________________
ENKOSI
ENUMERATOR_______________________CODE ________ DATE __________ / 2010
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