Aspasia Karras looks at the innovative parastatal that’s trying hard not to be a typical parastatal
Intersite managing director Dirk Ackerman has been instrumental in ensuring the property-management arm of the South African Rail Commuters’ Corporation has not become a typical parastatal.
Instead, he has created a state organ that can stand as a model for the Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP).
”I am a terrible egotist,” he claims, yet he is reticent when it comes to revealing details about himself and his role in the process of creating Intersite. However, a good story is seldom left untold.
Intersite seems to be scoring both in media attention, with 49 high-profile projects on the go, and on the developmental yardsticks of transparency, accountability, sustainability and consultation.
Ackerman was head-hunted from SA Perm in 1991 to spearhead Intersite — the initiative of the Transport Ministry and the Rail Commuters’ Corporation aimed at making use of a property portfolio worth more than R2-
Intersite was formed specifically to use the property in commercial ventures not directly related to the railways. At this point, Ackerman contends, the parastatal became a model of innovation.
”We manage the people’s property. But this was a really difficult concept to sell prior to the elections because it was imagined that as soon as you bought into (the idea of) people’s property, you would have about a million of the people squatting on said property.”
It was understood that all development decisions had to be taken on a fully consultative level. Labelling the process PIP, or Public Involvement Process, Intersite claims to consult extensively, on every level in the community, before embarking on any projects.
Its new Tshwane Village development in Hatfield, around Pretoria’s Rissik Street Station is, Ackerman says, an obvious example of this approach. Intersite has even used a pre-settler African name. The project will provide corporate headquarters for African Engineering International, house embassies, and develop an up- market shopping complex to complement the exclusive nature of Hatfield.
Intersite argues that to finance and sustain development the social viewpoint must be taken against a commercial background. The company claims that it does not believe in short-term budgetary gains.
”The RDP is about this kind of project. It has to be commercially viable to generate wealth,” argues Trevor Glass the mastermind of the Hatfield project.
Probably a more watertight project in terms of conventional RDP conceptions is the rehabilitation of Johannesburg’s South Station. Eleven black companies have been contracted for the R5,4-million venture.
Ackerman feels Intersite’s developmental approach is largely due to his staff, who mostly come from a struggle background, ”even though we sit here lily- white in suits and ties”.
He feels that South Africans have shown political conviction and resolve, but now, for the latter part of the Nineties, we need economic resolve which for him is a more difficult challenge.
He is quick to point out that only 43 percent of his staff is white so, in affirmative action terms, Intersite has already bettered the Black Management Forum’s requirements for the year 2000.
Another progressive ideal at Intersite is the small staff base comprising 75 people. Ackerman argues that in the private sector a company managing the same amount of property would employ more than 300 people.
Nicholas Wolpey, the recently-returned-from-exile son of Harold Wolpey, heads up the new policy unit at Intersite and has played a key role in compiling policy documents for Derek Hanekom’s Land Forum. Intersite has made a big contribution to the process, believing a parastatal can be an effective catalyst of sustainable
‘State land is an intrinsic asset, but it is only optimal if it is effectively used, otherwise you build a house of cards,” points out Wolpey.
Ackerman maintains Intersite is effective on three
* It creates opportunities for black entrepreneurs by increasing their capacities to function at levels that were previously exclusively white.
* By taking a commercial view on what should be done with the land, but with the input of communities, not only are jobs created, but sustainable development of state assets is ensured.
* Because it makes money as a commercial venture, it reduces the tax payer’s responsibility, and feeds money back into the railways.
”I want to put back as much as I can into the economic structure and help to turn people away from reactionary politics,” says Ackerman.
For a man who claims to be a workaholic, but who also relishes the experience of triple-loop aerobatic feats in a small plane, Intersite and its sustainable and profitable development is definitely an appropriate