Ekurhuleni redefines itself based on the principle of social cohesion for growth

Published Apr 1, 2015

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WE LIVE in a society that demands a lot of things. It seeks recognition when recognition is not due and respect when respect is something to be earned and not demanded.

Many forget that respect for an individual, an institution or a group of people is built over a period of time and is forged on mutual understanding and social cohesion.

As an illustration, there is a line from the US political TV drama, The West Wing: “Free trade stops wars.”

It alludes to the idea that business growth and development is about much more than the bottom line – that a vibrant, prosperous economy is the key to social mobility and community cohesion.

It is such a nice line that every one of us should work hard to understand and fathom that social cohesion is the ongoing process of developing a community of shared values, shared challenges and equal opportunity in our country based on a sense of hope, trust and reciprocity among all of us.

So what is social cohesion and what is its contribution to economic growth, to maintain equity to ensure economic and social development?

I wish to define social cohesion as those attributes that contribute to a breakdown of economic, social and political barriers to reform within a society, the willingness of people in a society to co-operate with each other in the diversity of collective enterprises that members of a society must do in order to survive and prosper.

However, the social cohesion challenge faced by the metro was based on two simple propositions: first, that improved social cohesion depends on a healthy economy, and second, that to promote a more healthy economy further economic reform is required.

As earlier stated, social cohesion was based on our willingness to co-operate with each other in the diversity of collective enterprises that we must do in order to survive and prosper.

Co-operation

Willingness to co-operate means we can and freely choose to form partnerships and have a reasonable chance of realising them because others are willing to co-operate as well.

This, of course, implies a capacity to co-operate.

This co-operation should take place at all levels of social activity, at national, provincial and community level. At community level, it can mean loaning your neighbour your lawn mower, or being a soccer coach or joining a choral society.

It can mean respecting the terms of your employment or the terms of a contract.

It can mean deploring graffiti on a school wall and teaching one’s children not to behave that way. It can mean obeying police traffic instructions or even calling upon the police to protect oneself from violence.

Social cohesion then is the sum over a population of individuals’ willingness to co-operate with each other without coercion in the complex set of social relations needed by individuals to complete their life courses.

While social cohesion is gaining momentum in our country, we too are affected by the erosive trends felt across the world. There are fault lines in our society, and in some cases, the cleavages are growing. Youth starting their careers do not have as easy a time. So how can we make social cohesion a significant contributor to our economic and social outcomes?

We need to fight efficiently against iniquities in order to accelerate social cohesion. We need institutional follow-up mechanisms of social equity and the development of more effective public policies for the promotion of equity, emphasising the importance of the question of equity and the promotion of social policies by reducing inter-territorial iniquities in our country.

In this regard we need to adopt more appropriate models that would help maintain equity to ensure the economic and social development. We need to provide the necessary resources for the follow-up and the assessment of the implementation of the policies, projects and programmes.

Also, the role of youth in the country’s social and economic development is important hence the need to address their concerns. If this category is affected by iniquity, it will impact negatively on social cohesion.

Indeed, we are not alone in our concern about the rising gap between rich and poor and the challenge of achieving economic growth.

As elsewhere, inequality partly reflects the interplay between technological progress and globalisation, which tends to reward highly educated workers, while leaving behind the less skilled ones and with lower education.

For me, education must be a key driving force of any economic miracle we aspire to. The education system should do more to promote inclusive growth in a number of ways.

For example, experience demonstrates that providing early childhood education and care to children from disadvantaged families promotes their skills and reduces social inequality. We can help by pushing ahead a common framework for high-quality early childhood education and childcare services.

That is why at Ekurhuleni we are renewing the basis of our competitiveness, increasing our growth potential and our productivity and strengthening social cohesion, placing the main emphasis on knowledge, innovation and the optimisation of human capital.

Sustaining economic growth is certainly important to promote social cohesion. It helps to generate the jobs and the public revenues needed to fund social welfare.

Social policies

But we are also aware that growth alone cannot solve all problems. Instead, well-targeted social policies are essential to promote social cohesion and reverse the upward trend in income inequality.

For example, as an aerotropolis, Ekurhuleni has always been a place where people from different places and backgrounds come together. It’s a place where different communities have come together to share ideas.

To re-industrialise Ekurhuleni towards radical spatial social and economic transformation and social cohesion, the following programmes are under way:

n A 30-year Ekurhuleni Aerotropolis Master Plan to balance the distribution of economic activity between the nine affluent areas and the 17 townships of Ekurhuleni.

n A five-year strategic implementation plan has identified 10 economic clusters that will be prioritised for development in Ekurhuleni.

n Approximately R789 million has been invested in a number of projects along Albertina Sisulu Corridor, creating at least 1 506 jobs.

n Eighteen new mixed development projects ranging from industrial, commercial and residential are planned for the Pomona area.

n The Township Economies Development Strategy has been developed and subject to approval, a comprehensive public participation process shall ensue in order to engage various stakeholders, social partners, organised business and the broader community of Ekurhuleni.

n The municipality has resolved to combat unemployment and eradicate poverty within Ekurhuleni by establishing strategic working relationships with social partners such as business, organised labour, civil society and other spheres of government, state-owned companies and state-owned entities.

We must continue taking radical steps to eradicate the psychological, social, economic and spatial manifestations of apartheid because without us doing so the battle would not have been won and true social cohesion will remain a pipe dream.

Mondli Gungubele is the executive mayor of Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality.

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