Page 83 - SCAT Rural Voice II - 35 Stories for 35 Years

Mount Fletcher
ADVICE OFFICE
Mount Fletcher is a town in the Joe Gqabi district in the mountainous north eastern part of the eastern Cape. A scenic small town founded in 1882, it takes its name from a nearby mountain which was named after the Reverend John Fletcher, a friend of John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist Church. The elundini Local Municipality under which Mount Fletcher falls is bounded by the Alfred nzo district in the north, Chris Hani district in the south, Or Tambo district in the east, and Lesotho and Senqu in the west.1
The largest employers of the elundini municipality are government and social services (41%) and commercial farming (28%), while 14% of people are involved in the wholesale and retail trade. Most people in the rural settlements practise subsistence farming with little surplus being produced for profit. The community also relies on income from family who are migrant workers in the bigger urban centres of South Africa. The total population size according to census 2011 is 11,488, 62% of whom speak isiXhosa and 32% who speak Sesotho.2
Mount Fletcher Advice Office is a local development agency established in 1994 to deal with human rights violations. Serving many villages in the eludini municipality, the Advice Office now focuses on both paralegal case work and other community uplifting programmes including awareness campaigns about human rights, gender based violence and saving scheme groups. The Advice Office is best known in the community for their credit and savings project which encourages women to save money as a group. The savings are later used to access credit by the members for needs such as their children’s education, emergency situations and household needs.
They have received funding from SCAT from as far back as 1995 and the good relationship between the two continues to this day.
1. elundini Local Municipality - Services. (2019). retrieved Steptember 20, 2019, from https://municipalities.co.za/services/1028/ elundini-local-municipality
2. Frith, A. (2019Census 2011: Main Place: Mount Fletcher. retrievedS eptember 20, 2019, from https://census2011.adrianfrith. com/place/286074
FAst FACTS
NaMe: Mount Fletcher Advice Office
LeD By: Thembinkosi Hlati
MaiN CHaLLeNGes faCeD By tHe CoMMUNity: domestic and gender-based violence, poverty and unemployment
MaiN aCtiVities: Paralegal support; community development; economic empowerment
aDDress: 8 Main Street, Mount Fletcher
CoNtaCt: Phone: 039 257 0009 /Cell: 073 605 8768
Gender
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