Some years ago I got chatting to a man on a plane who was busy building a new town in Lagos Nigeria. He worked for a US company that specialised in prefabricated construction. The building technology was brilliant – think Lego applied to homes. He hired me to run around SA getting quotes, although it soon became apparent that everything was cheaper in the Far East. Since then I’ve always wondered why people are happy to live in high-rise apartments in Sandton, while across the road in Alexandra township it’s all single storey without a spare square meter. If this type of technology was used in urban townships, we could have decent housing, with plenty of space for schools, hospitals and parks. This would reduce the clamour for land reform as most South Africans need jobs and a decent home to live in, not simply land. Of course, this type of renewal requires imagination, a scarce commodity at the best of times and almost completely absent from the present body politic. Bernard Benson...
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