Bulelwa Makalima-Ngewana
One of the benefits of my position as chief executive of the Cape Town Partnership is being invited to present at conferences where the costs are fully covered by inviting bodies.
This humbles me, the idea that what I have to say and the lessons we have learnt as an organisation are relevant enough to share.
At the beginning of this month, I visited Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, as a guest of the UrbanTec Brasil 2015 conference. Titled Smart Solutions for Better Cities, this international conference focused on “the best planning strategies, management and funding models for smart, sustainable urban development”.
Over three days, speakers from all over the world came together to discuss four key topics: managing the future for urban mobility, planning and funding smart urban infrastructure, innovating public administration, and smarter governance for smarter cities.
I was invited to take part on the “Planning Smarter Cities: Gaining Strengths through Collaboration” panel that took place on Thursday, October 1. Joining me on the panel were a number of specialists from Latin America and Europe.
While consensus was not reached on what exactly makes a city a smart city, my takeout from the conference is that a smart city is one that uses technology to enhance the quality of life for all its citizens, and that no matter how smart a city may be, it cannot truly be considered smart if people are not at the heart of its plans.
In my presentation, I shared the case of the Creative Cape Town mobile app, which arose from a World Design Capital 2014 project to map Cape Town’s creative industries.
Partnering with Domino Digital, we realised that these industries could be better mapped using technology, rather than by creating an analogue product. Creative businesses and individuals in Cape Town are able to upload their portfolios, services and events to the app, creating instant visibility and connectivity.
The app provides a free digital presence and allows creative businesses to reach a wider audience, is quick, convenient and has no associated costs. However, technology for technology’s sake is meaningless. We need to look at ways of intelligently bringing people and technology together.
More importantly, by visiting Rio and by listening to the other panellists, I realised that for urban practitioners, smart cities are the least of our problems! I’ve long considered the similarities between South Africa and Brazil.
The historical issues devilling South Africa’s development resonate in Brazil too. Like South Africa, Brazil has inherent inequality and our urbanisation patterns are similar.
Our two countries were the most recent hosts of the Soccer World Cup and nowhere is the international soccer organisation’s influence more apparent than in Brazil, where I heard talk of the super-sized stadiums demanded by Fifa currently functioning as very expensive car parks.
In a recent article on The Conversation, Haroon Bhorat, Professor of Economics and Director of the Development Policy Research Unit at the University of Cape Town, said that while South Africa’s Gini coefficient (income inequality measure) had been very similar to Brazil’s in 1994, since then, inequality in Brazil had fallen “given the rapid rise in secondary school enrolment and graduation rates (without sacrificing quality), the introduction of conditional cash transfers and strong economic growth.”
I’d read this before travelling, and so had a certain set of expectations upon my arrival. These were soon shattered. I’m not an economist, nor had I visited the country before, so I can’t comment on Brazil’s socio-economic gains.
But what stood out for me, was the sense of unease I felt in and around Rio – an unease that had nothing to do with my inability to speak Portuguese, though I strongly wished we shared a common language, as in my struggle to communicate, I felt that I was missing an opportunity to learn the nuances of Brazilian culture.
Visiting several of Rio’s favelas, informal areas, generally built on excessively steep slopes, I witnessed the stark reality of what happens when you have a scarcity of land. Nearly one million people live on one slope, with access limited to the bottom of these slopes. My guide explained that most of these favelas are controlled by drug lords, with some favelas being considered no-fly zones due to the rocket power at the controllers’ disposal!
Likewise, there appeared to be no-go areas in the city. During a Sunday morning visit, I veered off Ipanema’s main street, only to be alerted to the dangers of doing so.
One of the most important things the Cape Town Partnership achieved was to ensure that our CBD is clean and safe. This is a first step to ensuring that people feel secure enough to enjoy the city. Rio was also expensive, more so than I’d anticipated.
Conversations with English-speaking Cariocas informed me of just how expensive Rio is for ordinary citizens. For example, at 200 reals, carnival tickets are priced out of the range of many.
Perhaps this explains why I encountered so many people making use of the free entertainments offered by the city. The beaches were full all day, every day. Parks and public spaces teemed with people exercising, whether making use of free equipment or going for a run. Other than the huge disparities and my lingering sense of insecurity, this constant motion stood out for me.
It is my dream that Cape Town should be as vibrant and busy as Rio is.
This idea of cities being for people drives me, and despite its problems, I believe that in this respect, Rio has a lot to teach us. With this in mind, I’m already planning my next trip to Rio; this time, as a tourist!