On the N2, between the airport and Cape Town, is a parable of the pitiable state of local governance in South Africa, but also possibly of the stubborn spirit that could provide its redemption — or ‘turnaroundâ€, to use the management-speak of the day.
It is the story of the failed attempts at forced evictions of shackdwellers from a settlement named (ironically) after former minister of housing Joe Slovo.
Poor families were offered a choice to buy a R200 000 house or be relocated to an area 40km outside Cape Town where there are no jobs, few schools, no railway line and a higher rate of crime, which is no choice at all, really.
At the core of this parable is the lesson that we have learned to rule, but not necessarily to listen.
And as a result, we have institutions that are decisive yet deaf, that endeavour to solve the housing crisis, but fail to hear when citizens have found their own solutions. It is notable that both protests and violence continue to rise.
According to police figures, the number of peaceful public protests rose from 5 130 in 1997 to 9 230 in 2005. In the same time violent protests also rose, from 880 to 932.
Some residents of Joe Slovo have chosen to remain close to the city and jobs and to seek their own solutions to the squalor of their predicament.
Imagine, a bucket system, 15 years after apartheid ended, in a world-famous city, with a municipality ranked the second best in the country. It was the community and not government that took the initiative to rebuild homes.
Using better materials, homes were rebuilt in a block formation, leaving paths between the neat rows to make the community safer and easier to connect to services.
Perhaps then it is not surprising to hear community organiser Mzwanele Zulu say: ‘Away with councillors. We want community structures, democratic structures that represent our communities.â€
A similar view is echoed by the Proudly Manenberg social movement, which has become frustrated with the unresponsiveness of government and has chosen to take charge of its own affairs.
Founded on the traditions of the United Democratic Front, Proudly Manenberg has establishing street committees and development committees and today owns a recycling business, a local security firm and an investment company.
It is even in the process of building a waterfront in the township to be owned by the community.
These were the stories told to delegates at an international workshop, called ‘Pioneers of Participationâ€, in November for practitioners of participation in local governance from all over Africa.
Recognising and rewarding community involvement in governing themselves, the pioneers concluded, must be a central part of the local government turnaround strategy.
Further, the state has tremendous power and resources and in South Africa generally shares the same commitment to improving people’s lives.
So although community self-reliance can work, governance should work better in partnership with a supportive state — and our pioneers saw a powerful example of this in the ‘Violence Prevention through Urban Upgrading†project in Khayelitsha.
Today the results of this project are remarkable.
Not only are there a number of beautifully designed facilities, but by involving the community in all aspects of the project, for instance in community-run security patrols, priority crimes in the Harare section of Khayelitsha have also declined by 20% in three years. Most dramatically of all, the murder rate has dropped by 32%.
The urban upgrading project is a government-sponsored partnership between the City of Cape Town, the German Development Bank and the Khayelitsha Development Forum that runs into hundreds of millions of rands, but not a cent was spent on building for the first 18 months until local support had been established for the first project, a small community building in a peace park.
Clearly then, local government can make a real difference and it must be turned around to do this. This requires a fundamental shift in attitude from ruling to leading and from diktat to partnership that must come from our political parties, civil society organisations, universities and schools.
Most of all it requires recognising and affirming the energy and innovation emerging from communities and new social movements.
Laurence Piper works in the department of political studies at the University of the Western Cape