IT’S a beautiful summer’s evening in Pretoria. At the city’s official guesthouse in Muckleneuk, the lights of the city twinkling in the distance, a lively garden party is under way. The host is the executive mayor of the city, Kgosientso Ramokgopa, his guests a select group of top black businessmen who are committed to investment in the capital.
Ramokgopa earned the nickname “Sputla” for his skill in manoeuvring a soccer ball. Now he’s using a similar skill to manoeuvre the capital city’s spaces, and he’s courting those he would like to have on his team.
Ramokgopa gets philosophical when he speaks – which he does off the cuff with no notes, iPad or Powerpoint.
On this occasion he’s explaining the rationale for Tshwane Metro’s controversial decision to sell by auction about 80 pockets of council land and offer significant incentives to those who develop them.
The land can be used for a range of activities but the successful projects, in line with the city’s Vision 2055 strategy, must enhance “the quality of life, access to social, economic and enhanced political freedoms” of residents.
Incentives are based on the type of development, its location, scale and value to the re-envisaged city but will include fast-tracking applications and rezoning, provision of bulk infrastructure, rates rebates, exemptions and tax incentives. Aside from the income generated from the sale of the land – estimated at R500 million – the council’s conservative calculation is that the land will generate R3.7m of new revenue a month, increasing to at least R44m a month once development is complete.
The plan has not been without its detractors, but Ramokgopa and his executive are forging ahead regardless of the “chorus on the other side of the political fence”.
“If you listen to that chorus, you will never get to do anything,” says the mayor, who believes only bold action can bring about an intervention in city spaces, provide vitally-needed infrastructure and “de-racialise” the city economy.
The lamentation of the mayor is “there has not been any genuine attempt to understand the social dimensions that constitute the city’s DNA; no honest examination of the social forces that are at play in post-apartheid city spaces”. For him and his executive team, the challenge is to resolve the problem of a city constructed along racial lines and to ensure it has the status it needs as a capital city. He makes no bones about the fact that projects must benefit black economic empowerment. Here Ramokgopa cites as an example retail development in Tshwane’s townships.
“One of the biggest tragedies of retail development in the townships is that it has cannabilised local entrepreneurs… the second is that township retail development is in the hands of those who were privileged before,” he says.
“Go to Atteridgeville and Mamelodi – to Jubilee Mall – there are no black players even though consumption and buying powers resides in the townships,” he says. To rectify this, where there are new opportunities for retail development on land being sold, it must be majority black-owned.
The other desire is to give the city something which defines it as a capital. Already there are a number of projects under way to spruce up the buildings, rejuvenate the inner city and create two boulevards: a government boulevard on Paul Kruger Street and a ceremonial boulevard along Helen Joseph Street (what was Church Street, between Church Square and the State Theatre).
Defined entry points to a city help give it a sense of character and unity. In Tshwane these will be the Nelson Mandela Corridor with the Apies River in the east, Salvokop with Freedom Park and new government projects in the south, West Capital with its residential component and an entry point to the government boulevard in the north.
Ramakgopa has the backing of a loyal team for his bold transformation agenda. Whether opposition politicians agree with him, or residents moan that there are other needs they feel are more important, when one listens to him, it’s hard not to be swept up by his charisma and game plan to remake the old apartheid capital into a leading non-racial African capital. One can be sure that the city with its twinkling lights we admire today will look significantly different in the next decade or two.