October 3, 2005
By Anish Abraham
THERE are plenty of lessons local government in Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) can learn from Johannesburg - from the way it bounced back from the brink of insolvency to the remarkable twist in which one of the country's worst prisons became the home of the South African Constitution.
This was one of the observations made by a Congolese delegation hosted by the Johannesburg Innovation and Knowledge Exchange at the Metropolitan Centre on 30 September. The visit included a trip to Alexandra township to look at the Alexandra Renewal Project.
The DRC delegation was made up of Jean Marie Kasango Tutu, the director in the ministry of interior, decentralisation and security; Ignance Mavita Gata, the deputy director; Albert Mfumgilizi Nzazi, a counsellor in the ministry; and Rene Sola, a counsellor from the Congolese embassy in Pretoria.
They were in the city to learn about effective forms of local government and inter-governmental relations, as well as administrative, technical and financial aspects of local government.
"We have come here to learn first-hand from your experiences, and hope that it inspires us. That is our objective," Gata said through an interpreter.
Twin cities
Lorraine Wilkinson, Joburg's director of external relations, said there was a need for co-operation between cities and governments as it was an important way to share information.
Johannesburg had twinning agreements with cities like Birmingham, New York and London, she said. To emphasise the need to work with other African cities, Joburg had also developed close partnerships with Addis Ababa and Windhoek.
"We also have informal relationships with Kinshasa and Lubumbashi and are considering having agreements with Nairobi and Matola, in Mozambique," she explained.
Pascal Moloi, the City Manager, spoke about Johannesburg's past and the efforts that were made to bring the separate municipalities into a single structure , as well as the difficulties that made those changes necessary.
"We had a city that was split along a north-south divide," he said. A multimedia presentation showed affluent suburbs in the north of the city and the townships in its south.
Challenges the city faced included increasing collection rates, increasing capital expenditure, increasing levels of service delivery, achieving a clean audit and obtaining further credit rating improvements.
As Joburg's administrative head, Moloi said he was responsible for ensuring the mayoral priorities and decisions taken by the political side of local government were carried out.
As such, City directors had to meet several targets that were agreed on when they signed their contracts.
Bond issue
The Congolese delegation was interested in the City's bond issue to raise finance for capital expenditure, though Moloi warned that the enterprise was easier said than done.
"Municipal bonds are a very cheap way of raising finance for capital expenditure, but you need a healthy balance sheet and a good credit rating."
In conclusion, Moloi said the rise in Johannesburg's fortunes could be attributed to a strong, stable political leadership; a reliable governance framework; improved internal business processes and systems; diversified customer relations; and improved financial planning and better credit ratings.
The guests were also given a detailed explanation of the Integrated Development Plan (IDP), which has to be drafted by all municipalities, and the Joburg 2030 long-term vision.
"Local government is the closest form of government that interacts with communities. The IDP is the most regulative process for local government in South Africa," said Lawrence Khoza, a specialist in business planning and performance management in the City's corporate planning unit.
Alexandra
In Alexandra Julian Baskin, the director of the Alexandra Renewal Project (ARP), gave the group a short tour of the northern township.
"The ARP is the first of its kind in South Africa to bring many levels of government together. To have integrated development, you need integrated government," Baskin explained.
Construction in Alex: director of the Alexandra Renewal Project, Julian Baskin, discusses the programme
Already half-way through its seven-year lifespan, the project aims for a complete restructuring of Alexandra, where wall-to-wall shacks have pushed the density to more than 760 structures a hectare.
Baskin said improvements had been made since the start of the programme: 72 percent of residents now had access to water and sanitation and 88 percent had access to electricity - this in a place once known as "Dark City".
The Congolese visitors were astonished at the township's hostels and their history. Baskin said hostels were a unique feature caused by apartheid.
He pointed out that the design used for the male and female hostels was the same as that used for the infamous Sun City (Johannesburg) Prison.
"They [the apartheid government] were not able to remove the people, so instead they suppressed economic activity and closed off the township from the rest of the city. It was all about controlling the people."
Renewal project
Much of the early part of the ARP focussed on electricity, water, sanitation, roads, schools and health facilities, and residents complained that they still lived in shacks and did not have jobs.
The focus now is on providing housing. As there is no available land in Alexandra itself, the houses are being built on the Far East Bank, a rapidly growing suburb.
Baskin also talked about a new concept of housing that was being planned for the ARP.
"We are thinking about cluster-housing, where Aids orphans live together in groups with a caretaker. In this way, the children are not sent off to orphanages or big institutions, but remain part of the community.
"We really hope this concept works and can be replicated," Baskin said.
The delegation was pleased with its trip to Joburg.
"Our country has a very good relationship with all levels of government in South Africa," Sola said.
"Just as we can learn some things from here, there are also South African officials coming to DRC to learn from there."
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