Dreams can come true, Mr Mayor, just ask Elon Musk
WHILE eThekwini mayor Mxolisi Kaunda was spelling out his vision for the city, another South African was turning his vision into reality.
SpaceX, owned by South African-born Elon Musk, made history this weekend by becoming the first private company to launch human beings into orbit. Previously it was only the governments of America, Russia and China that achieved this.
Hours after launch, the Crew Dragon spaceship carrying two astronauts docked with the International Space Station, another first for a private company.
For Musk, it represented a significant milestone in a journey that has spanned almost two decades.
The end game is to colonise Mars and other planets. It might be just a dream, but Musk is following a detailed plan to get there.
He plans to exploit low orbit flights to fund his dream as well as build experience in space travel.
It will allow private individuals to experience space and speed up travel between cities. By way of example, a flight between London and New York currently takes about eight hours in a commercial jet.
SpaceX believes it can cut the time of the flight down to less than half-an-hour.
Musk has now shown his rockets and spacecraft can transport people to and from the International Space Station.
Next is getting humans back on the moon. The last time we were there was 48 years ago and it would provide the experience needed to get to Mars.
Musk wants to see people on Mars in the next few years. By 2050 he hopes to have transported one million people to the Red Planet.
They will live in a city, which according to Musk, will have “an outdoorsy, fun atmosphere”.
Since Mars does not have oxygen, people would move around in electric cars, no doubt supplied by Tesla, an electric vehicle and clean energy company Musk also owns.
It is envisaged that those who live in the city will make decisions for themselves and if Musk gets his way, there will be fewer and less complicated laws than we have on Earth.
For people wanting to escape crowded, dirty, crime-infested cities on Earth, it offers an opportunity to make a fresh start.
It also makes Kaunda’s job more difficult. Now, striving to be Africa’s most caring and liveable city is not good enough.
eThekwini needs to be one of the best cities not just on Earth but in our solar system.
It needs to be a modern city. A city that people choose to live in.
One that puts residents first. A place where those in charge make decisions based on the greater good of those who call it home.
It’s a tough ask. Kaunda inherited a city scarred by apartheid. And those who came before him didn’t do as much as they could have to undo the injustices of the past.
Kaunda has a vision. But he needs to flesh out a plan to turn the dream into a reality. Hard decisions will have to be made. But dreams can come true. Just ask Elon Musk.