Day22-29,3Nov to 12Nov More Interviews,Pre-drafts,editing of audo & video and uploading onto website

Tue 3Nov:

I tried to get more information from Joburg Water,particularly from the Zandfontein branch which covers the problems of sanitation and water supply problems in the Sandton,Alexandra and Marlboro areas.It was extremely difficulto get hold of the media and communcations person,Baldwin Matsimela from Joburg water.There were other people in that department that could have provided the information needed but they were not allowed to speak to the media.No emails were answered and with regard to telephonic calls they gave me the run around.This was very frustrating.

Wed 4Nov & Thur 5Nov

I tried to continue the sanitation story with whatever information I collected over the weeks.Eventually I did get the information I needed and that was a great help.

I started a pre-draft of my flood management story...

Fri 6Nov

At the last minute I thought of going back to Alex,to get a point of view of the people who lived in RDP houses about their sanitation facilities.They told me that they are quite satisfied with the sanitation facilties at present although thay had to wait for over 7 years for their houses.
Pumla Radebe told me how her shack was washed awy in the floods,and that after that she lived in the transit village for over 7 years before they moved them to RDP houses.

Jo-anne checked my pre-deraft of my flood management story.

Mon 9Nov

I looked the video clips to decide what needed to be cut out or edited for Shain,this was for the flood managemnt story.I also made a audio-script for the sanitation story and got it checked by Jeanne.I then re-edited the audio.
I signed up onto U-tube,to make uplaoding of video possible.

Tue 10Nov

We uploaded most of stories,videoclips,slideshows and audio onto the website today.Other than a few technical glitches it went well.

Wed 11 Nov & Thur 12Nov

After uploading the stories,by trial and error we tested how the story appeared on the front end.We had some developers to help us so that things could go smoother,but Dave & Jeanne were more clued up to what was going on on the technical side.

We filled in our group assessment sheets and tied any loose end on the website for Jeanne & Dave to put in the finishing touches.

At around 3pm most of us left the lab to go home and dress up for the Year-End dinner which was held at Sophiatown in Newtown.We all looked forward to it in anticipation because there were going to be a short awards ceremony and the Journalist of the Year was to be announced.

Day 16- 21,26Oct to 2Nov Power reporting conference & Preperation of drafts for website

Mon 26 Oct - Wed 28 Oct:

We attended the Journalism Power Reporting conference on Education Campus.
Some of the best journalists in Africa and Europe attented and the conference.The talks were very interesting and helped us to gain further insight into what journalistic career paths we wished to follow.

Thur 29Oct- Fri30Oct :

The rest of the week we finalised the primary and secondary story topics that were intended to appear on the website. We also decided on the type of multimedia we wanted to use.We sent this information to Jeanne as a group.

In addition,we finalised any outstanding interviews and is presently working on draft copies for the website.

Mon 2 Nov :

We had a short group meeting to look at our video footage from the camcorder/flipcam,which will be used to integrate into our print stories.

DAY 15 - 23 Oct Wits Architecture,Planning and the Built Environment

I tried to go back to Alex to speak to more people about the sanitation problems.Yesterday, I spoke to people in Sjwetla.Today I wanted to get another view from the people in Alex Eastbank(ie the RDP houses).The people living there seemed mostly satisfied with the sanitation system-they used mainly the flush type toilets.

I visited Joburg water ( the Zandfontein branch) that deals with the Alex sanitation mainly and interviewed the depot manager,Tshediso Motlatla,a civil engineer from Wits. I briefly asked him about the present sytem and the newer technologies in the pipeline.

I need to interview him on Monday again for more information as he needed to be at a meeting later that day.

Dr Daniel Irurah from Wits Architecture was quite pessimistic about the future of better sanitation in any informal settlement.He has done extensive research on the urbanisation of informal settlements in Nairobi,Kenya,with Prof Marie Huchzermeyer from the Wits Architecture department.

He had become a bit despondent from some of the projects that did not work in Kibera,Kenya.However, he said there were some fanatastic eco-friendly methods that people in informal settlements do not appreciate,beacuse they are faced with a choice of : Do we want better housing first or better toilets first? And usually the common response is better housing.

DAY 14 - 22 Oct Visit to Joburg Water in Jhb CBD

Interview with persons from Joburg water & sanitation facilities(for Alex) in Harrison Street- Bonginkosi Xaba.
Baldwin Matsimela,the communications officer was not available.
Later in the afternoon we went to Sjwetla to speak to the people who live there and their view on the sanitation problems.

One man,Perry Njodyi explained the stench quite well.He said since his arrival at the settlement, he has lost his appetite due to the reek of the river. He prefers to eat anywhere else but not in Alex.

Many people spoke about their fears of going to the portaloos at night due to criminals lurking as well as rats that tend to bite the people.

DAY 13 - 21Oct Urbanisation of Informal Settlements by Architecture,Planning & Built Environment

I met up with persons from Architecture and the Built Environment,who had previously worked on the Global studio project in 2007. The project involved the urbanisation of informal settlements, in particular sanitation facilities.

Persons involved in this project was Dr Garth Klein,Prof Marie Huchzermeyer and Dr Daniel Irurah. Irurah was mainly involved in sustainable ecofriendly development of sanitation facilities in Kibera,Nairobi,Kenya.In South Africa,they are working on eco-friendly facilities in the Ekhuruleni(Johannesburg) area and some informal settlements in Natal.

DAY 12 - 20Oct Group meeting with supervisors

We had a short group meeting with supervisors,Margaret and Jo-anne.We confirmed the media we wanted to use and the direction of our stories that we had pitched earlier.

So far so good.

DAY 11- 19Oct : Visit to Sandton Fire Station and Disaster Management Sites in Alex

We visited the Sandton Fire Station. I was quite excited about that.
We had an interview with Fency Nkoele and Godfrey Sigudu.They are based at the Sandton Fire Station and are part of the National Disaster Management Forum.They took us on a short tour of Alex to show us structures in place to help assist with managing or controlling floods.

At the fire station they have a weather station(connected to the weather bureau),which monitors levels of the water and if levels rise very high during rainy season the emergency services are alerted,thereafter the trained volunteers that live by the banks of the river are notified to be on standby for help.

They showed us the telemetric structures,the Memeza(Call for Help) structures and the Alex Transit Villages (ATV).The former two are measures used to call for help but they have been vandalised and misused.They have cost over millions to be fitted in.

The latter (ATV) has about over 400 units,with about 15 left for emergencies.The flood victims are the first to be allocated housing,many of which are foreigners.This has left to xenophobic violence in the past because locals complain about waiting for houses for over 10years according to Fency and Godfrey from the Sandton Fire Station.