The HDA, as part of its medium-term operational plan with the Free State, has an office in Bloemfontein that provides various services to the province, including informal settlement upgrade support.
Most recently, the HDA conducted participatory processes on profiling Mangaung Metro informal settlements and households, socio-economic surveys and enumerations for the purpose of development of settlements’ resettlement plans.
To prepare for the enumeration process, on 28 October 2014 an enumerators’ training session was conducted in Mangaung) for nine informal settlements (Jacob Zuma, Codesa 2 and 3, Lusaka Square, Kaliya, Winkie Direko, Saliva, Joe Slovo, Randjie and Tambo Square) .
The enumerators’ training was followed by focus group meetings on 29 and 30 October 2014 with all nine informal settlements in their respective communities. The information gathered from these meetings includes each settlement’s history, settlement growth and migration patterns, economy and livelihoods, community initiatives and projects, vulnerability, access to services, community capacitation, needs and prioritisation, opportunities and an overall gathering of socio-economic status. The focus group meetings were open to individuals representing the youth, elderly and disabled, local church, clinic and community leaders.
The enumeration process is to gather qualitiative data to inform the upgrading plans of the settlements.
