Selebi Phikwe Institutional Profile

The Selebi Phikwe Town Council has reached stage 10 of the COE process. The gender action plan is being implemented, and was updated last year after having been drafted in 2010. The Selibe Phikwe Town Council has few women in the council, but those who are there have been very active in both in taking on leadership positions, and also making sure gender has been on the Council agenda. There are 6 council committees; 4 are chaired by women, and 2 by men, which demonstrates the high level of engagement of women. The council ensures that there is gender parity in most of their committees.

There is a recycling programme, which involves one man and 6 women, and in addition a brick making project is going on: they are working to build houses, and have built 61 houses in 3 years; most of the beneficiaries are women.
There is a request from the council for support in national level lobbying on budgetsAt the moment, the council have no budget for gender, because of directives from central government. They see this as a limiting factor for taking forward their gender work.

Training for women has been conducted by the council. 400 women from the Ipelegeng project have been trained by the fire department, and 400 women from the community have been trained on first aid. Also, there is an ongoing update on building control standards in the Selibe Phikwe community.
The council has mainstreamed a local level poverty eradication strategy put in place: Ipelegeng, alternative packages, Ipelegeng feeding programme suppliers, and sustainable livelihoods approach program have all come together to include gender in their work, and see how poverty can be eradicated in the community. The social and community development departments do a mass assessment every two years.

Council characteristics and functions are as follows:

The council faces a braod range of challenges, ranging from air pollution from the mine, to HIV/AIDs, to a shortage of serviced land. The council must respond to all these challenges to move the community in the right direction. The council feels its performance can be strengthened even further by embarking on reforms programmes which are aimed at improving productivity and efficiency among its employees. A performance Management System was introduced as one of the reforms.

As part of the gender mainstreaming process, Selibe Phikwe has edited the gender action plan and adopted it in a full council meeting. According to the gender focal person Mrs Segopotso Dikai, the plan is now being implemented. Mrs Segopotso Dikai also attended a train of trainers in Palapye which was organised By BALA, Gender Links and the Women’s Affairs Department. She says the training has empowered her; she was able conduct the stage 3 workshop community meeting