March 6, 2007
OPENING ADRESS BY THE MEMBER OF THE MAYORAL COMMITTEE FOR COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT IN THE CITY OF JOHANNESBURG, CLLR. NANDI MAYATHULA-KHOZA
Chairperson of the Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA), Mr Jay Naidoo;
Chairperson of the South African Cities Network (SACN), Mr Andrew Boraine;
President and Chief Executive of the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC), Dr. Olive Shisana;
Chief Executive and Managing Director of the OSSA: Mr Paul Baloyi;
Chief Executive of the SACN, Mr Sithole Mbanga;
Vice Chancellor of the University of the Witwatersrand. Prof Loyiso Nongxa;
Chief Executive of Urban Landmark, Dr Mark Napier;
Members of the Mayoral Committee and fellow councillors of the City of Johannesburg;
Officials of the City of Johannesburg;
Distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen.
It is indeed a great honour and privilege for me to be here with you to participate in this very important conference. I am also honoured for the City to be co-hosting this conference together with the OSSA, HSRC, SACN, the University of the Witwatersrand and UrbanLandmark. To those of you who hail from outside the country, welcome to South Africa and more especially, welcome to Johannesburg.
The purpose of this conference is to provide the basis for the development of locally appropriate tools for creating more inclusive cities in Africa. Using the African urban experiences that will be shared at this conference, it is my hope that we would enrich the global debate around creating inclusive cities in the face of increasing diversity and growth of urban areas on the continent.
It would be useful for me to get the ball rolling by attempting to unpack the term 'inclusive city'. At face value, the term implies a city in which residents and visitors feel welcomed and can identify with its social and socio-economic fabric. However, let me try and unpack the term further. An inclusive is a city in which:
All its people have access to basic services;
People have access to employment opportunities to engage in productive livelihoods;
Recognises people’s cultural rights and provides amenities and public spaces for people to express these rights;
People can find creative expression in arts and heritage;
People can showcase their talents in sports and partake in community activities;
Recognises the human capital of all its people and strives to actively enhance this through appropriate programmes;
People have political freedom and freedom of expression;
No matter what your race, ethnicity, nationality or socio-economic background, you are made to feel welcomed;
Not only socially cohesive but spatially cohesive as well;
Cherishes and propagates human rights;
Proactive in meeting development challenges as well as having the foresight to plan ahead to militate against new challenges.
The term 'inclusive city' therefore means many things. Hence, building an inclusive city is not the sole preserve of any particular city government department or, for that matter, of city government itself. It is the responsibility of all social actors (as typified by partners co-hosting this conference). It is also the responsibility of citizens who are the agents of social interaction. However, local government should be the key driver in building a socially cohesive city because it is the most accessible institutional sphere of government with which people and communities can interact. It is also the sphere of government responsible for ensuring that appropriate leadership is provided in undertaking corrective actions to address development challenges that can militate against the creation of an inclusive city.
Local government in South Africa, as is the case with the City of Johannesburg, is committed to sustainable human development by ensuring that all those who live within its jurisdiction and who abide by its laws have a decent quality of life. Sustainable human development also means inclusive and equitable development. Without inclusive development, our cities will continue to remain socially and socio-economically fragmented. Of course, apartheid (as in the case of South Africa) and colonialism (in most of our African countries) has made the development challenges posed by urbanisation more complex. Nevertheless, eradicating the negative socio-spatial manifestations of both apartheid and colonisation is a battle that each of our cities has to continue with in building an inclusive city. Building a socially cohesive city is therefore an ongoing process and not an end-state in itself.
Building social cohesion also requires strong political leadership at all levels of government. In his State of the Nation address on 9 February 2007 the President of the Republic of South Africa, Mr Thabo Mbeki, highlighted the need to build social cohesion amongst the people of this country. The President also attested to the need to intensity the government's efforts at rolling back the frontiers of poverty and meeting service delivery needs as critical elements in building social cohesion. As noted by the President, the South African Government will during the course of the year finalise a strategy and programmes to address matters of social cohesion, including a comprehensive and integrated anti-poverty strategy, as well as address issues pertaining to national unity, value systems and identity.
- The City of Johannesburg has been very proactive in ensuring that it is able to create a more inclusive city and give effect to national government's pronouncements. The City has developed and begun implementing a Human Development Strategy (HDS), which is the City's plan at addressing poverty, inequality and building social cohesion. The Strategy comprises of three strategic directions: Safeguarding and supporting poor and vulnerable households in their efforts to access social safety nets (typical programmes in this regards include
- Revising the City's Social Package Policy to ensure that poor households are more effectively targeted to benefit from core subsidised services such as water, electricity, sanitation and refuse collection and
- Enhancing awareness and facilitating access to government social grants)
- Championing the rights and opportunities of people who are economically marginalised and whose circumstances have been affected by gender, generational and/or spatial inequality (typical programmes in this regards include
- Championing the creation of Sustainable Human Settlements
- Promoting the development of women who have historically been disadvantaged on the basis of race, class and gender) and,
- Building prospects for social inclusion for vulnerable groups through fostering social relationships and productive partnerships (typical programmes in this regards include
- Implementing a Youth Development Strategy,
- Developing and implementing a Children Living and Working on the Street Strategy and
- A City Support Strategy for Migrant Communities).
In order to facilitate the process of building social cohesion in line with its Human Development Strategy, the City has recently also established a Helpdesk for migrant communities. The Helpdesk provides advice on accessing other government services available to migrants and refugees as well as information on other resources (e.g. health and legal services) within Johannesburg from which migrants may seek help and/or obtain information on their rights. As part of the development of the City-Support Strategy for Migrants, the City is also committed to working with relevant role-players in initiating a campaign aimed at addressing xenophobia (a critical issue in creating a more inclusive city).
Most of our African cities today are socially heterogeneous and are becoming more so in this age of globalisation. We need to recognise that a diverse population is a strength and opportunity in itself as this diversity can be harnessed to enhance people's choices. The increasingly heterogeneous nature of our cities provides the basis of new forms of artistic and cultural expressions, which can also be tapped into to collectively create a better and more vibrant social-scape for the city. Therefore, the increasingly cosmopolitan nature of many of our cities provides a basis to more effectively promote the concept of 'strength in diversity' as we seek to build more inclusive cities.
However, the rapidly urbanising African City has brought with it many challenges as it has placed huge demands on land, water, housing, transport, employment, health care and on environmental resources. Concomitant challenges, other than the pressures placed on the demand for services and on non-renewable resources, also result from urbanisation. These include: the challenge of addressing poverty, reducing the spread of HIV and AIDS and the breakdown of traditional family structures. These challenges, if not appropriately addressed, can result in a weakening of social cohesion in our cities.
My fellow councillors and officials look forward to listening to your own experiences over the next two days for we also want to make sure that the City of Johannesburg is on a continuously upward path of improving its own corrective actions that will help to create a more socially cohesive city. Critical questions that I would like you to unpack over the course of this conference include: How can we collectively and more effectively harness economic growth and build social cohesion in our cities? What are some of the common challenges we face in harnessing this potential and how can we go about addressing these? What are the lessons learnt through some of your own interventions in promoting diversity yet addressing poverty and inequality in your city?
Distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen - by way of conclusion, I would like to take this opportunity in wishing you well in your deliberations over the next few days. With the wealth of knowledge and experience on the issue of social cohesion at our disposal in this conference, I am sure that it is going to be an enriching and stimulating two days for all of us. I urge to you to make your contributions freely so that we can all benefit from the collective experience. I also trust that you would enjoy your stay in Johannesburg.
Thank you.
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