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Transition Town  (Posted :"2008-11-25)  view old articles
KEAG Recycling center Imhoff FarmImagine us in Kommetjie, possibly in the not too distant future, when oil has bounced up again near the $150 per barrel mark, when more banks around the world have gone to the wall and when we have just had our third twenty-year storm in one year. The possibility has struck many people around the world that the future, not of their great grandchildren, but more immediately, could be very different from the present. With this realization has come the urge to do something about it, to try and deal with both the causes and probable consequences of global changes - to embark on a transitioning process during which can start weaning ourselves off energy and consumerist addictions, become more self reliant, less dependent on imports, more adept at food production, less profit obsessed and more inventive about how we supply our basic energy and water needs.

Along with a number of other suburbs in Cape Town and villages and towns in England, Ireland, New Zealand, Australia, Canada and even yes the US, Kommetjie has begun to have and respond to these thoughts. Come and find out more about the movement (that is really about getting back to basics) and practical things to do at the Kommetjie Transition village Show and Tell day Saturday 6 December 2008, 2 - 5 p.m. in the Community/School hall. There will be examples of and/or information about things that work from solar and wind power to rain water harvesting, recycling, food growing, passive and LED lighting, composting, worm farming, hot boxes, local currency and more. R5 or T5 at the door. Proceeds to KRRA. Before that we will try to screen a few wake-up films locally and meet some residents personally. If you'd definitely like to be included and updated email patrick@tops.org.za

For more on transitioning go to: http://transitionza.ning.com

Additionally we could say that Kommetjie is suited to explore the transitioning concept actively in that:


  • The village is almost entirely bordered by national park

  • With about 1000 houses and three thousand it is not too big or too small.

  • TTs work well up to about ten thousand people before getting a bit unwieldy admin-wise

  • There are a good number of well-educated, green thinking, forward planning, community conscious, skilled, active and willing people living here

  • There is a fairly good set of internal communication networks like KRRA, this website, komwatch etc

  • Several TT ideas such as green housing design, energy efficient systems, rain storage, natural lighting, waste consciousness, recycling, local biking, food growing, alternative and mainstream healing, fixing and making of stuff are already happening to some degree

  • We engage in robust dialogue with the municipality

  • We have fairly good and growing data on the village ito demographics, water and electricity consumption, waste produced, open space available, rainfall, wind speeds, sunny days etc

  • Several residents know about and or have read up on and or been part of transition town experiences elsewhere in the world and are keen to share this knowledge with others and encourage them

  • Quite a few residents are already active members of the talent exchange system – an alternative, debt and interest free way of trading


    • Borrowing the idea of weaning yourself off drugs or drink the TT original thinkers came up with a 12-step process viz in summary:

    12 steps

    * Set up a steering group and design its demise
    * Awareness raising – films, events etc
    * Lay foundations – other groups, existing projects etc
    * Organise a great unleashing – coming of age, inspiration
    * Form working groups – guidelines, training etc
    * Use open space technology
    * Make sure there are practical manifestations
    * Undetake a great reskilling
    * Build bridges with local government
    * Honour the elders – frugality, oral history etc
    * Let it go where it wants – control is illusory
    * Develop an energy descent action plan – 20 year vision

    With our skills survey, Show and tell day on 6 December, school nursery, recycling, bike path projects in various stages we think we are making progress and even if there were 200 years of plentiful oil left in the earth (which there isn’t) and even if there were no imminent climate change problem (which there is) and even if there had been no market crisis (which there was and is) – the sort of vision of less mess and greed and energy guzzling, more local sharing and reliance and more healthy, simple living which TT is about, would still be the right thing to do. It’s also what many locals are sort of aspiring to anyway. The TT thing gives this basic urge impetus.

    Of course for projects and attitude shift to succeed in the longer term it is going to mean effort and complacency countering. There is no one clique that wants to own the TT concept. Anyone can start something and involve those that are interested and contribute to the whole.

    There is a degree of urgency about the need for transitional thinking however in case some might think this is just more CT hey shoo laid back stuff. There is very, very little disagreement amongst scientists around the world that radical reduction in carbon and eco-footprints is necessary to avoid bad not even worst scenario predictions of an inhospitable planet within the lifetimes of our children should we not succeed in getting CO2 concentrations to below the 350 part per million level from our current 380 and climbing position. The likelihood of natural feedback loops kicking in to exacerbate the situation cannot be ignored and it would be as dof to try and prove the hypotheses wrong as it would be to put a gun against your head and pull the trigger to test whether there really was a bullet in the chamber or not.

    Further encouragement and myth dispelling from Wiki

    The Transition Town wiki provides a "cheerful disclaimer":
    Just in case you were under the mistaken impression that Transition is a process defined by people who have all the answers, you need to be aware of a key fact.

    We truly don't know if this will work. Transition is a social experiment on a massive scale.

    On the other hand, everything that you read on this site is the result of real work in the real world and hearty community engagement. There's not an ivory tower in sight, no professors in musty oak-panelled studies churning out erudite papers, no slavish adherence to a model carved in stone.

    TT initiatives include creating community gardens to grow food ("food feet" instead of "food miles"); recycling projects and business waste exchanges; repairing instead of throwing away; and in Totnes a local currency has been introduced which is redeemable in local stores.

    The local exchange trading system (LETS) as a component of the transition town movement is very interesting and this would be a particular strength for transition town communities in Cape Town. It is indeed fortuitous (or perhaps just brilliant planning and organisation) that the SANE CES are behind the transition town movement here. We already have our own Community Exchange System that trades in Talents (the name of our currency, used instead of Rands) and has been going strong since around 2002. This coupled together with the Transition Town framework and its background in permaculture could make for an extremely effective community response to the challenges facing us.
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