The people of Hoekwil and Touwsranten recognised their shared desire for safety, and in 2021 they tried something different.

Many people are deeply mistrustful of those who come from communities different to theirs, the Institute for Justice and Reconciliation’s 2023 Barometer Report reveals. And in a country like South Africa, where the gaps between those who have and those who don’t are wide, and crime and insecurity are rife, this mistrust is even deeper.

In most peri-urban and rural areas in South Africa, communities of affluence and poverty often live alongside each other. But they rarely come together to solve the shared problem of crime or join forces to build a common vision for development.

Wealthy neighbourhoods tend to blame those who are poor for crime, while poor communities struggle to change the things that make them feel unsafe and that enable crime. How do we address this after generations of division along race and class lines, especially when there is very little experience of equal partnership between such communities?

The two vastly different towns of Hoekwil and Touwsranten on the Western Cape’s Garden Route grappled with this question. Although next to each other, Hoekwil residents are mostly white and affluent, while those of Touwsranten are mostly Afrikaans-speaking coloured people, with a smaller number of isiXhosa-speaking people and immigrants from other African countries.

The two towns recognised that they shared a desire for safety, and in 2021 they tried something different. The Violence Prevention Forum, convened by the Institute for Security Studies, together with community representatives, created a platform to help solve crime, feelings of unsafety, and the need to build prosperity for all.

This took the form of a regular community dialogue, which enabled people from the two towns to get to know each other and find solutions to their shared safety concerns. Before the dialogue was established, there was limited, if any, interaction outside of employer-employee relationships between the people who lived in these towns.

The dialogue was started by concerned members of Hoekwil and Touwsranten, including the Ratepayers Association, a local non-governmental organisation (NGO), and community leaders. Monthly meetings support ongoing discussions and action. They are facilitated by residents and a South African Police Service representative who jointly identify emerging challenges and possible solutions each month.

Early on, the dialogue identified two key problems. First, the two communities did not have opportunities to interact with each other, and second, there was a need for more income-generating opportunities.

To address these challenges, participants started the Touwswil Market, which provided income-generating opportunities for residents of both towns. Food and crafts such as jewellery are sold, and people can socialise and get to know one another. The market has also enabled a local NGO to raise funding.

The dialogue shows that when a space is created for interaction and socialising, people are willing to build connections. Through their participation, the police have a better relationship with the community and are more trusted. The meetings have also helped resolve important service delivery problems, such as the lack of toilets for families living in informal housing, and the need for better rubbish management and collection.

With the help of the Ratepayers Association, the dialogue has enabled the maintenance of a path running between the two towns, which previously posed safety risks and, for a time, was a hotspot for robberies.

Now the dialogue is working on an outdoor gym project to provide recreational facilities for young people. This was motivated by research done by the Icelandic organisation Planet Youth with Grade 8 learners from 18 high schools in the area. It found that young people were more likely to engage in risky behaviour such as drinking and smoking, if they didn’t have healthy recreational activities and feel connected and valued by their family or community.

The dialogue has faced many challenges, such as misconceptions about what it is and whether it is affiliated with existing organisations in the two towns. The biggest problem has been reconciling differences within the group. Establishing a vision and mission statement and having values that guide how people interact helped mediate these issues.

The exercise has shown that while finding common ground due to race and class differences may be difficult, it is not impossible. Through their discussions, participants have learnt to not only talk to each other, but to actively listen – even during difficult conversations.

‘If we truly want to be a nation, we have to stand as one, not a collection of different agendas buttressed by our prejudices and fears,’ Henley Business School Africa Dean and Director Jon Foster-Pedley wrote in Daily Maverick on 5 June. He called on those with resources to start by acknowledging the problem of people trapped in poverty and to stop retreating behind their locked doors in the suburbs.

This was in the context of an inspiring story about how an ex-gangster and convict, Welcome Witbooi, turned his life around. He arranged a supportive dialogue for 183 women who had lost a family member to gang violence in the Johannesburg suburbs of Westbury and Eldorado Park. The dialogue helped the women to look ahead at what was possible, and shows the power of creating space for people to talk to each other.

For South Africans to feel safe and heard, and for ordinary people to prosper, our different communities must stand together and bridge the country’s divides. In doing so, we may discover that we’re not as different as we think.

Join our 5 September webinar to find out more about local dialogue for safer communities.

Written by Andisiwe Makwecana, Consultant, Justice and Violence Prevention