jordyn hill lewis He lists five differentiators that he believes are what make Cape Town better than other cities.
This year, South Africa celebrates the 30th anniversary of the end of apartheid in 1994 and the transition to democracy. And we will celebrate this in the best and most appropriate style: holding democratic elections.
I was only seven years old when our country held its first full-fledged democratic elections. Although I am too young to fully understand the significance of this event, I am fully aware that it was a big moment.
One of my first conscious memories was watching Nelson Mandela's inauguration on television.
Now, this is our seventh democratic election, and it will be the most important and influential election ever since the first.
As a young political activist, there was never any question on campus or in the streets about who would win the national election. But for the first time, the outcome is not uncertain in advance, and there is at least the prospect of a change in the country's government.
Read | Mbazima Sirova: Mr. President, please skip to the end of SONA. We've heard it before…
Looking back on the 30th anniversary of democracy, there is, of course, much to praise.
South Africa is an indescribably better place than it was under apartheid. The fact that tens of millions of people who were not traditionally allowed to be called citizens will vote this year says it all.
But as long as our approximately 11 million unemployed people feel there are few prospects for a better future for them, South Africa has hardly made the most of the last 30 years.
As long as poverty worsens, South African politics will also be in turmoil. Voters will be pushed to the margins, where the peddlers of the politics of division and hate will wait and bide their time.
For those of us who truly believe in the precepts of liberal democracy and its power to create massive human progress, the ground is becoming increasingly unstable.
That is the scale of our challenge, and I feel it very personally.
there is another way
I deeply believe that true social progress can be achieved at the intersection of politics and economics, which is why I enjoy this job so much.
Our mission in Cape Town is to provide a living demonstration of progress towards the 1994 promise that in South Africa it is still possible. I'm extremely proud to represent a city that shows this vision is still possible.
Cape Town may be a world-class tourist destination and a regional economic powerhouse, but I think the city's greatest achievement is in showing that there are alternative routes available to South Africa. Masu.
Rather than continue to reel from crisis to crisis, Cape Town is preparing for the future.
I would like to share with you five differentiators of our approach to governance. Read together, these explain why Cape Town can perform better than other cities.
I have considered these universal truths and have no doubt that applying them elsewhere will yield the same improved results.
The first lesson is that we must have clear and bold national ambitions, something we clearly aspire to.
Perhaps this lesson is best illustrated by the question: “What does South Africa aspire to today?”
None of us can give a convincing answer to that question, and certainly no one in the national government can. Rather, there is a widespread belief that national failure is inevitable.
In Cape Town, we refuse to believe that. We want to show that no one in South Africa has to accept that our country currently only has reverse gear. Instead, we should raise our ambitions and aim unashamedly for excellence and progress.
The second lesson is that to bring about progress, we need to build a results-based nation.
This may sound disconcertingly obvious, but the South African example demonstrates how easily the desire for power can outweigh a state's ability to meet the needs of its people. Thirty years of cadre deployment has undermined the state's ability to provide basic services.
Cape Town has depoliticized the civil service and reclaimed the concept of the civil service as a great career option for talented candidates.
As our reputation as a great place grows, so does the caliber of candidates we attract.
My third lesson is that long-term success requires devolution of power from the center to energetic local governments.
It is a universal democratic truth that government functions are best located closest to the people who benefit when they function well and who suffer when they fail. Doing so creates more democratic accountability. And this means local governments can act to protect residents from the consequences of state failures.
In Cape Town, we actively advocate for the breadth of local powers and deliberately test the definition of those powers to the fullest, particularly in the areas of energy supply, policing and passenger rail.
Read | John Steenhuisen: The revolution has failed.Let's try delegation
The fourth lesson is the importance of future-proofing infrastructure investments.
The situation in many of South Africa's cities and towns today shows us what happens when we neglect our infrastructure or fail to invest in new infrastructure in anticipation of future growth.
We vow that this will never happen in Cape Town and are obsessed with making sure we are prepared for the future.
With a population of around 5 million people, Cape Town is on track to overtake Johannesburg as South Africa's most populous metropolitan area. Our cities will be close to 10 million people within a generation.
Rather than being daunted by this prospect, we are determined to meet it head-on, and we are currently deploying the largest infrastructure investment pipeline of any city in the country. Over the next three years, we will outspend South Africa's other two largest cities, Johannesburg and Durban, combined.
In my fifth and final lesson, I will talk about the distinct philosophical differences between city government approaches and central government approaches to overcoming poverty.
Here I mention the truth that only growth can fund more redistribution.
The principles are the same whether you are dealing with income from local taxes or national taxes. A low-growth economy with a shrinking revenue base is incompatible with expanding redistributive policies. If we want to do more for the poor, there has to be growth to pay for it.
By growing the local economy, Cape Town has increased revenue without overburdening taxpayers. This allows him to run the most redistributive government in the country, with 75% of his budget and infrastructure investments all going to poor communities.
I believe that by focusing on these five areas, we can lay the foundations for successful cities everywhere.
If South Africa is to succeed and millions of people are to be lifted out of poverty, its cities must succeed.
Professor Ed Glaser has a quote that I love.
I don't know of any path from poverty to prosperity that doesn't take you through the streets of a city.
But for these cities to succeed, they will need stronger local power, growing regional economies, capable governments, and clear ambition. In this way, we can build a more prosperous future.
I say this not because I believe blindly in any particular approach to governance, but from a standpoint of evidence. After more than a decade, Cape Town has achieved enough success based on this approach to start seeing meaningful differences in results.
And in a year when South Africans go to the polls to make choices about their future, these differences in outcomes are significant.
Our mission is therefore not only to build a city of hope for Capetonians, but also to create a ray of hope for all South Africans – proof that decline is inevitable. is. Thirty years later, the dream of 1994 is still alive and a better future is possible for everyone.
– Jordyn Hill-Lewis is the Mayor of Cape Town.
*This is an edited excerpt from his talk given at the London School of Economics on January 23, 2024.
*Would you like to respond to a columnist? Send your letter or article to opinion@news24.com Include your name and town or prefecture. I would appreciate it if you could also send me your profile photo. We encourage diversity of opinions and perspectives in submissions from our readers and reserve the right not to publish any submissions we receive.
Disclaimer: News24 encourages freedom of speech and the expression of diverse opinions. The views of columnists published on News24 are therefore their own and do not necessarily represent the views of News24.
