Not just a tag line

APART from the hat-trick of striking political conflicts brought to the fore, Sona invokes more questions than answers. “Radical socio-economic transformation” (RST) for whom?

Significant challenges are not solely limited to any particular urban or rural extents, and statistics mentioned reveal a limited depiction of urban realities. Here’s a statistic, over 62% of South Africans reside in urban areas, but, what about the urban poor?

In light of our increasing sprawling cities, inequitable urban form with lowincome individuals being pushed to the fringes and environmental degradation, clearly, consequences of our ignorance, go far beyond the plaster of social grants, jobs and transport, alone.

Is the Expropriation Bill going to bring low-income individuals closer to the central areas of economic opportunity in order to deny sociospatial remnants of a pre-94 era? Or, is it limited to address agricultural challenges of land outside the area where the majority reside? How long post-“94” are we waiting for radical socio-spatial transformation?

Here’s two more statistics: about 50% of urban citizens live in informal settlements/townships, taking up 60% of South Africa’s unemployed.

The organisation I speak from, Development Action Group (DAG), draws on 30 years of experience in finding bottom-up ways to address issues of the urban sector. We believe that civil society organisations, the government, NGOs and private firms, need to collaborate on a strategic path.

A sad fundamental truth is, until the realisation occurs that these old problems need completely new, innovative and people-led solutions, “transformation” of any kind will be no more than a tag line. Lewin Rolls DAG, postgraduate intern