GOODWILL DITLHAGE: With the right partnerships Joburg can do better

The recent outcry by Johannesburg property owners reached a crescendo of frustration that culminated in Kabelo Gwamanda’s resignation as mayor and his replacement by Dada Morero.

These ructions point to an ongoing crisis. Writ large on the canvas of these political developments is the dearth and scarcity of solutions aimed at addressing the governance challenges facing the city. 

However, the building of lasting and constructive partnerships with critical stakeholders by Joburg has the potential to offer the city unrealised urban management benefits.

For instance, there is no doubt that traffic control by Outsurance pointsmen during peak hours positively affects travel times on the city’s busy roads. This benefit to road users in the city is not disputed, but useful partnerships of this kind require nourishing and replication.

When partnerships of this kind are scaled to the right level, consensus among stakeholders on Johannesburg’s crucial development priorities may emerge and some form of development coalition is likely to emerge. 

A relevant example that comes to mind is pronouncements from a round-table Joburg held not long ago on how it intended to deal with bad buildings by handing some to the private sector for low-cost housing development, something the private sector welcomed.

Mutual benefit

This is not to say city administrations and the business community will agree on everything, but that where useful city-business partnerships are forged there is likely to exist a mutuality of benefit, including positive spillovers to residents of the city in general.

Thus reciprocity, where neither the city nor business stands to lose out when collaborating, is a critical feature of such good partnerships.

Healthy relations between the city and business also thrive when there is a multiplicity of interaction points between the two, such as joint development ventures and through the creation of platforms for ongoing dialogue.

Partnerships of this kind need to be embraced considering the magnitude of service delivery challenges confronting a city of Johannesburg’s size.

Research on the city’s experience with partnerships since the dawn of democracy reveals useful alliances to foster. In the past, for instance, a partnership was built with Investec Bank to establish the “Business Place”, where small and medium enterprises could receive assistance.

In another, an export support programme assisting small and medium enterprises was run by the city in conjunction with the Johannesburg Chamber of Commerce & Industry.

Other areas of co-operation with business entailed working together with private companies, among others Volkswagen and Avis, during Parks Tau’s tenure to train individuals belonging to small, medium and microenterprises. In addition, a training programme was undertaken by the city in conjunction with the giant technology company SAP to assist unemployed graduates.

The three areas of continued co-operation and partnerships between Joburg and the business sector that stand out include the signing of the Inner-City Charter in 2008 to tackle crime and grime, the establishment of city improvement districts with uniform-clad guards, and the setting up of the Johannesburg Business Forum.

Certain gains were achieved through these initiatives. Among notable differences they brought in the city immediately after their launch were improved safety, improved occupancy rates in areas such as Braamfontein, and ongoing exchanges that allowed the city to keep its finger on the pulse of business concerns, especially concerns about incorrect billing and turnaround times for development permit applications.

Noble as these initiatives to build impactful relations between the city and business were, they also had challenges that are worth noting and learning from. The charter process collapsed apparently from commitments that were never implemented and the loss of confidence this caused among participants.

Improvement districts were criticised for apparently creating “enclaves of exceptionalism” and for their seeming takeover of local government’s revenue-collection functions. On the other hand, the business forum lacked widespread esprit de corps, with certain of its members pursuing narrow interests.

It is imperative that partnerships between the city and business serve broad development aims, what Ben R Schneider calls public-regarding ends and not narrow interests.

Having said all the above, on their own city-business relations are not a panacea to the development challenges Johannesburg contends with — the city must still get its governance right. Well-meaning alliances can easily shift from serving noble ends to being about venality.

Corrupt forms of relations between individuals in the city and the private sector have in the past made news headlines. Those reported in the media included officials using the billing system in co-operation with some big ratepayers to avoid paying for services, officials in the city’s revenue department colluding with dodgy individuals, purported service suppliers overcharging residents, and acts of nepotism through giving contracts to family and friends by those in the employ of the city.

Degenerate and predatory relations of this kind are unwelcome. They must be shunned because where they exist they vitiate the building of developmental ones.

• Ditlhage, a Wits politics graduate, has worked in the public sector.