August 6, 2007
By Neil Fraser
I HAD a fleeting visit to what I used to call the Southern Cape earlier this week; they tell me that it is now known as East Cape - whatever!
I spent a very short time, hours only, in George and Knysna - it is quite some years since I was in that part of the world. Just some quick impressions as that was all I had time for. Firstly, the tremendous growth that this part of the country has clearly enjoyed over the past few years is continuing, judging by the high level of new development that is visible just everywhere and, secondly, how clean the area is - and particularly those two towns.
George has spread over a huge area; driving from Knysna I measured 10 kilometres from entering the edge of its "strip" retail area to what I used to understand as the beginning of its CBD. It is a long, low-density retail strip, rather sprawled but very orderly and quite diverse. At the end of this, you turn into the traditional main drag, York Street, which is extremely wide with well-tended central flower beds and deep parking areas on either side before you get to the retail.
It doesn't make for a brilliant pedestrian retail experience, but I must say the spaciousness, cleanliness and excellent condition of the public environment made me rather envious. Quite a number of the pavements, and some of the roads, have been and are being resurfaced with a lovely red paving brick and add to the upbeat feel of the public space. On the downside, I had a brief chat to a councillor and gathered that drugs, and particularly tik, are a major and growing concern.
The N2 between George and Knysna has been dramatically improved since I was there last and one can really enjoy easy driving through continuously magnificent scenery - spoiled only by some lousy architecture in the widely scattered residential, primarily "holiday", areas along the way.
Knysna
Knysna, on the other hand, has high density retail on both sides of its main street and, while being more easily walkable than George, clearly lacks the latter's countrified charm and spaciousness. There are lots of visitors - even at this time of the year - making full use of the many touristy shops and pavement cafes.
Driving through the main street is awful; it is very congested - even at this time of the year - with little on-street parking. The planners appear to have chosen rather to put their parking areas behind the main retail street, but these are quite difficult to find if you don't know that they are there.
I understand that the Knysna municipality is seen as being one of the most enterprising municipalities in the country. For example, it is already providing free broadband access to its citizens, with a growing number of "hot spots" positioned throughout the town, while most other councils are still only talking about this amenity.
I was interested to see that the town council is also repaving a main street square which I remember previously as catering for informal traders, badly housed and mostly selling tourist goods. It will be interesting to see how the council intends to accommodate them in the future. Incidentally, the price of housing appears prohibitive.
I visited the Knysna municipal offices to ask for some literature on the town, as I couldn't find a town website - not tourist info, which the web is full of, but covering issues such as population, economy, growth, future plans and so forth. I was told, rather uncertainly but very politely, that they would have to see what they had and would email me the information.
I haven't received it yet; maybe they don't have access to their wireless facility. I did the same in George - although it does have a website, it doesn't have the information I wanted. As I wasn't sure where the municipal offices were, I stopped in at the George Tourism Bureau, well accommodated in a historic building.
It didn't have that kind of information either, understandably I guess, so I was directed to the municipal offices some blocks away, whose officials were also extremely nice and polite but re-directed me back to the tourism centre. I didn't have the time or the inclination at that stage to go back but it made me aware of how totally centred such towns appear to be on tourism with, evidently, little thought to broader economic sustainability.
Red tape
All of which brings me to the issue of our burgeoning bureaucracy. Last year I was invited to the launch of a research report focused on "counting the cost of red tape" in the tourism industry - pretty staggering figures too. Well, we have recently been making a lot of submissions in response to public invitations to be "accredited" on various panels as potential service providers.
In the construction industry this would be akin to pre-qualifying before you are allowed to tender for or be appointed on a specific contract. All well and good, but I would love to know what the cost to the country is for this bureaucratic excess. You have to make separate applications to different departments of national and provincial government but, worse, you have to do the same to every municipality and, in the case of Johannesburg, separately to its different departments and municipal entities - annually or biennially.
Why there cannot be a Johannesburg central register of service providers that you are required to update annually I just don't understand. It takes many man-hours to complete each submission and for each of these you have to provide various original documents or sworn copies of originals. Each basic document is different in order to cater for the idiosyncrasies of each department or municipal entity, even though they are for the same municipality.
On more than one occasion in the past two years we have been advised that our applications were lost (with all their original supplements) and that we had to re-apply.
With respect, the information that is requested to accompany the documentation is often in relation to processes that have been long abandoned, such as Regional Services Council levies, or are no longer possible to obtain. For instance the South African Revenue Services, intelligently, no longer provides separate documents for "good standing" and "tax clearance" and "VAT" and "PAYE" and "UIF" and so on, but provides one document that covers all of these issues. But application documents still request these individually. Someone is just too lazy to update their own documentation.
Questions
Some of the questions asked are quite inane, extremely badly worded and don't apply to pre-qualification where there is no specific contract in view: "What would you ensure effective project management of assignments for XXXX?"; "What is the distance from the candidate organisation's office to the relevant (your organisation name) offices?"; "Would the awarding of the contract result in your having to employ additional people and, if so, how many additional people would you require?"; "Give a breakdown of the race and gender of these people"; "Appointment of a new boarder (sic) panel of professional service providers …"
Then, irrespective of the fact that new black economic empowerment (BEE) codes were promulgated on 9 February this year and have force of law providing a single standard for measuring BEE contribution levels of all enterprises, everyone does their own thing.
The new legislation provides a level of protection for small organisations like ours that have a turnover of R5-million or less. We are awarded an automatic BEE level four status regardless, which we can then improve further through black equity.
This is a protection for micro businesses the lack of which previously has resulted in many old, established firms having to shut down simply because they had a single white proprietor. At least there is now protection for small, traditional "one- or two-man bands" that have a low annual turnover, and probably use more black students or graduates part time, providing them with more essential training and experience, than many bigger companies.
Yet, national and local government departments make no reference in their documents to the legislated BEE status, rather falling back on the 80/20 or 90/10 preference points system to be applied for adjudication. This latter means that 90 points are allocated for price, six points for use of historically disadvantaged individuals (no franchise in national elections before the 1983 and 1993 constitutions) and the remaining four points for females.
That preference system is also used by a number of council departments and municipal entities. But not all - one Johannesburg entity advises that it will evaluate applications 50 percent as to track record, prior experience and price, and 50 percent as to black economic empowerment, skills development, social investment and procurement.
This appears to be clear discrimination that does not take into account the law of the land nor micro businesses.
It's about time that we had a similar investigation to the "counting the cost of red tape" but this time into the cost, efficiency and discriminatory practices of the procurement processes of municipalities and other public sector bodies.
Ciao, Neil
Architect Africa Film Festival 2007
The Architect Africa Film Festival 2007 is the first festival of its kind in South Africa, fuelled by the magic of film and fired by the desire to celebrate architecture.
In collaboration with Cinema Nouveau screened by Jameson, a selection of award-winning films will be screened at Cinema Nouveau in Johannesburg, Durban and Cape Town during August and September.
Given the speed at which the world is urbanising, and the importance that the built environment is assuming in general developmental settings, the Architect Africa Film Festival will rapidly become an annual cultural event of considerable significance on the African continent and throughout the developing world.
The festival aims to create awareness of the need for thoughtful design and the important role of architecture in society. Other cultural events, such as exhibitions and debates that will take place at the festival, aim to create awareness of major issues in architecture and construction, such as capacity building, training and education; development that is socially, economically and environmentally sustainable; and inclusive, innovative architecture that represents our society appropriately.
This is a rare opportunity to enjoy several fascinating films and documentaries on architecture and the built environment. The films that have been selected explore the relationships between buildings, the lives of people who use them, and the contexts in which they are located.
Revel in these and 10 other exciting films: Fountainhead (classic feature); Metropolis (classic sci-fi feature); The Architects (feature); City of God (feature); Lagos: Wide and Close (documentary); The End of Suburbia (documentary); Living in the Landscape - Peter Stutchbury (documentary); Caracas: An Informal City (documentary); Sir John Soane: English Architect - American Legacy (documentary); The Architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright (documentary); Many Words for Modern (documentary).
Dates and venues for the Architect Africa Film Festival:
Johannesburg - Rosebank Nouveau: 17 to 23 August - The Mall, Rosebank;
Durban - Gateway Nouveau: 24 to 30 August - Gateway Shopping Centre;
Cape Town - Cavendish Nouveau: 31 August to 6 September - Cavendish Square
The event is endorsed by the South African Institute of Architects, the South African Council for the Architectural Profession, the Gauteng Film Commission and the Gauteng department of arts, culture and heritage services. Sponsors and partners include the Cement and Concrete Institute, Cinema Nouveau Screened by Jameson, and Wallstreet Global Careers.
For more information, visit the Architects' Collective website or the Ster Kinekor website.
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