Reflecting on 2018: Part 2

Rebecca Plumbley As we reach the end of 2018, we look back on ten significant projects and events that happened this year. This is Part 2 of the list. 6. Herb Market Fire On the 29th of July a fire destroyed around a third of the Traditional Herb and Medicine Market, burning the stock and … Read more

Reflecting on 2018: Part 1

­Rebecca Plumbley As we reach the end of 2018, we look back on ten significant projects and events that happened this year. 1. World Resources Institute: Ross Prize Top 5 On the 12th of December, it was announced that AeT is one of the top 5 for the World Resources Institute’s Ross Prize. The prize … Read more

The Traditional Herb and Medicine Market Fire

Rebecca Plumbley On Sunday the 29th of July a fire burnt around a third of the Traditional Herb and Medicine Market. Video with permission from a known source. The Traditional Herb and Medicine Market is comprised of 289 permitted traders selling traditional medicine in the form of herbs, roots, dried plants, bulbs and bark. In … Read more

The Emergent Importance of the Informal Economy through Secondary Education

Tasmi Quazi Last year’s national trial examination paper for Grade 12, 2012 (final year of High School) geography learners, contained an entire section worth of questions on the ‘informal sector’.  The section was worth 28 marks out of the 100 marks allocated per question. An experienced educator’s aspiration is not only to broaden the minds … Read more

Work Experience on the Streets with Goucher College

By Tasmi Quazi Last week, two Professors and eight students from Goucher College based in Baltimore, USA, spent two and a half days with Asiye eTafuleni (AeT). The visit to urban and rural grass roots organisations in South Africa was designed as part of experiential learning for a course in “Civil Society and Social Change”. … Read more

Markets of Warwick Wins a Mayor’s Award for Excellence!

Tasmi Quazi On Friday evening of 7th December 2012, a significant moment and victorious closure to the year was realised for the Markets of Warwick Committee, the informal trading community of Warwick Junction in general, including Asiye eTafuleni (AeT). It was when the Markets of Warwick project received a Mayor’s Awards for Excellence in the … Read more

South-South Learning Exchange

Tasmi Quazi & Richard Dobson Asiye eTafuleni (AeT) was invited to provide strategic input at a South-South learning exchange held in Maputo, Mozambique from 7 – 9 November 2012. This brought together development practitioners and mainly city government officials from the provincial capital cities of Mozambique, eThekwini Municipality in South Africa, Belo Horizonte and Porto … Read more

Growing Importance of Informal Recycling with Growing Concerns of Climate Change

Compiled by Tasmi Quazi Two comprehensive articles on the role of informal recycling, or waste picking, nationally and internationally have been written by Mark Carras for Urban Earth and Stephen Charters for Sustainable Cities International, both citing Asiye eTafuleni’s Inner-city Cardboard Recycling Project  as a good practice example. Carras’ article titled “Waste pickers in South Africa”, … Read more