Housing or human settlements

Take back the power - Times LIVE

Dr Mamphela Ramphele says it is time for ordinary South Africans to once again seize control of their own destinies - and firmly remind puffed-up leaders that citizens are the real rulers of this country

We also need to change our development model as a society. A society of passive citizens waiting for delivery of services from government is a society at risk. Imagine how much of an impact we could have had on poverty over the past 15 years if we had involved poor people in the formulation and implementation of development projects in their communities!

Take housing or human settlements. The involvement of prospective house owners in the mapping of settlements, the laying of infrastructure, the building of houses, including all the finishing touches done under management and supervision of experts, would not just produce better houses and neighbourhoods. It would also provide a skills-training base for thousands of young people trapped in poverty. It could defuse the time bomb we are sitting on, of 50% of those aged between 20 and 24 who are wallowing in despair: not in school, not in training and not employed.

We also need to review our approach to social welfare. Our tax base cannot sustain 13 million welfare-grant recipients. Nor is it desirable to have so many people depending on hand-outs. Why not learn from Latin America and turn welfare-grant recipients, other than the severely disabled and the aged, into trainees for productive lives as skilled workers or entrepreneurs? The Grameen Bank in Bangladesh is another example of empowering poor people by giving them a leg-up and not just a hand-out.

Ramphele is former MD of the World Bank and vice-chancellor of the University of Cape Town