from the edges
I was born on the Cape Flats, educated by diverse teachers, and have served on boards of both developmental NGO’s (the arts, housing, financial), and businesses both listed and private. I enjoy complex processes, read widely, and love the mountains, beaches and wines of the Cape. Over the last decades I have been engaged with building networks of individuals from a range of businesses, government and civil society on our continent – hoping to facilitate practical and policy interventions in a range of spaces and writing and speaking for small, targeted audiences.
We the people of South Africa
Recognising the injustices of our past and present
United in our diversity
Lay the foundation for a prospering, democratic and open society
to heal divisions and improve the quality of life
of all who live here
The successful and profitable outcome of a deliberate and coordinated urban development strategy for the next 35 years will result in a massive increase in middle-class households, with stable income, living in medium to higher density urban spaces. Easy access to a diversity of facilities and opportunities, fixed assets with real value and substantially reduced transport costs will contribute. This will provide the necessary foundation for viable municipal government with a sustainable rates-base and a significant increase in the proportion of the urban population that can pay for municipal services. Two million value creating jobs.
my foundational analysis
Our elections of 1994 and the birth of our constitution in 1996 brought the promise of a deracialized, democratic and wealthier future for all citizens. Democratic, progressive control of the state with the purpose of righting historic legacies of race and tribe-based allocation of national assets gave hope not only to South Africans but to the people of Africa and thinking citizens scattered around the world. We expected the construction of a political economy that tackled poverty, improved education, dispensed justice, healing the deep psychological and economic wounds of apartheid and colonialism.
We have the resources of capital and skills to tackle poverty and joblessness, to rebuild hope, to hold the state to the ideals of the constitution.
Opportunities for a wealthier future abound if we deploy the courage to shift from short term measures of success and focus on our constitution’s values and objectives.
