Voices from SA

Edgar Pieterse is the director of the African Centre for Cities (ACC)  based at the University of Cape Town. He is an urbanist trying to make sense of the sociology, politics, geography and economics of the modern African city.

We discussed the often difficult relationship between city governments and national governments,  and the ongoing struggle for policy and financial control o the trajectory of cities across sub Saharan Africa. 

Edgar feels it is necessary for  the social, political and economic debate at all levels to be re-imagined if cities are to fulfill their true potential as hubs of national  economic growth and social transformation.  

The bulk of our discussion focused  on the Integration Syndicate project hosted by the ACC in Cape Town. The project was an attempt to encourage a different kind of thinking about the issues of urbanisation in Cape Town  and  which "explores the obstacles and solutions to social-spatial integration in the Cape Town metropolitan region."  The five provocations that came out of the sessions, and which we touch on, are relevant to many large cities on the continent.

Download The Integration Syndicate book here.

Edgar also had some fascinating and imaginative things to say about the South African taxi industry and how the foundations for an integrated transport infrastructure already exist. 

At the heart of our discussion was the shadow the generational impact of apartheid planning casts over our cities at so many levels and that require an imaginative and multidimensional response, beyond a simple residential mix, to resolve.

Goapie Kabe grew up in Soweto, Johannesburg. A school outing to a live recording of a TV show planted a seed that eventually led her to changing  plans and studying film instead of engineering. Over the last ten years she has developed into one of South Africa's leading cinematographers.

We had a great chat about the art of film-making, the role of the cinematographer in interpreting a director's vision, the importance of pre-production, her love of shooting hand-held, and always having a plan, or three when on set.

We also spoke about light and framing, cameras and lenses. She loves technology and so we also spoke about the evolution of camera and lens technology.

And we spoke about her role as an  inspiration to young black women wanting to break into the film industry.

Vedhant Maharaj is an architect and head of the Rebel Base Collective architecture and design studio.

I recorded this interview a few weeks back and it then got put on the back-burner as I wanted to have some guests on to  look at the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on South Africa. Please listen to the recent episodes with Michael Sachs and Prof Shabir Mahdi.

Vedhant  and I chatted about a number of things including how he became an architect, the state of South African architecture, the difficulty and challenges of changing the legacy of spatial apartheid and the policy landscape of that debate.

We also spoke about the evolving technology of sustainable materials and design, and touched on his masters thesis design project that confronted the challenge of infrastructural and ecological design in the political and religious context of modern India.

Prof Madhi has recently co-authored a number of articles about South Africa’s route out of lock down. So we chatted about how this might look. He emphasised the need for people to observe distancing protocols in order to slow the rate of corona virus infection.

We chatted about the changing understanding of how corona virus acts on people. We also discussed the reasons behind the lock down and how some of these reason are no longer valid according to Shabir. Another issue we touched on  is  the spread of corona virus via asymptomatic carriers.

Shabir is also concerned that many decisions taken by government have not been based on science. 

We also discussed the global bun-fight around developing a vaccine. It is clear that we will have to live with corona virus as best we can until a vaccine is available and this process might take years.

Read Shabir's latest article about South Africa's COVID-19 strategy here.

My guest this week is Michael Sachs, Adjunct Professor at the Southern Centre for Inequality Studies at the University of the Witwatersrand .  

He has recently co-authored a number of articles looking at the impact of COVID-19 on the South African economy. The articles have not only looked at the health response to the pandemic but also suggested paths to ending the lock down. 

I spoke to Michael on May 11, 2020.

We had a far ranging discussion that looked at the economic impact of the pandemic on South Africa. There are tough times ahead for sure. We chatted about the role of a state that has been incapacitated over the last decade or more, we discussed the separate roles of the Treasury, the Department of Trade, Industry and Economic Development and the Reserve Bank in this crisis. Michael also suggested the  government will be forced to take some tough decisions on its role and involvement in certain sectors of the economy such as aviation and energy.

Erik Esbjörnsson has been the Africa correspondent for the Swedish daily newspaper Dagens Nyheter since 2010. He spent six years in Nairobi before moving to Johannesburg in 2016. 

He had an inkling things were about to change in South Africa and Zimbabwe and wanted to be closer to the action.

Over the last decade he has traveled all over the continent. His most recent reporting, before the travel ban came into effect, was from Sudan. A few months ago he tracked down his great-grandparents home in Goma while on assignment in the DRC.

Of course we spent quite a bit of the podcast discussing a number of different aspects to the corona virus pandemic including the South African government's response, and the seeming breakdown in international solidarity that the pandemic has provoked.

We also chatted about Erik's childhood and his path to journalism, as well as some of the highlights of his decade recording events across Africa over the last decade.

She is a PhD student at the global change institute at the University of the Witwatersrand. Her PhD is looking at the potential for diversification and scale in small scale farming. Ndoni is also the founder and CEO of Black Women in Science  registered non-profit organization which aims to deliver capacity development interventions that target young black women scientists and researchers.

 In 2016 Ndoni was selected in the Top 200 Mail and Guardian Young South Africans under the education sector. 

We had a good chat about the potential and possibilities of small scale farming vs large commercial farming. Ndoni pointed out some of the actions required to ensure the success of small scale farmers not only in producing a quality fruit or vegetable, but also support in access and use of technology, good governance and other aspects of building a successful business.

Ndoni has been working with satellite imaging technology and so we also chatted about the use of technology in agriculture as well as the need to link farmers not only to tech, but also to researchers like herself. She suggests there is a gap that needs to be bridged.

Dr Jackie King is an aquatic ecologist specialising in fresh water, that is to say riverine/inland water systems. She is a pioneer in her field and is the winner of the 2019 Stockholm Water Prize. 

Back in the early 80’s Jackie she and some her colleagues developed a new field of study  that today is called environmental flows. In essence this is a set of concepts and methods that provide stakeholders communities and governments with a set of scenarios when they plan the future of a river system. 

We chatted about the need to find a balance between soft and hard engineering, and we talked about rivers. The Mekong River that runs through South-east Asia for example, and river systems such as the Okavango Delta and some of their incredible characteristics. 

While she does not describe herself as an activist it is clear she is revered by many around the world for her efforts to harmonise the relationship between humans and the rivers that are so important to life on earth.

Read more about Dr King and her work here. 

This is a special edition of Voices from SA. A virtual panel discussion arranged by Africa Podfest that I moderated entitled "Radio's Place in a Podcasting World.

Africa Podfest was due to take place in Nairobi 12-13 March but was postponed due to the Covid-19 pandemic. This inspired the organisers to organise a range of panel discussions including this one.

"This session is about radio, which is where on demand audio came from. In light of the growing crossover between radio and podcasting, we envision a tipping point moment where there will be more interest and investment in podcasts than in radio. If podcasting is to fulfill its potential what are the practical considerations with regard to radio’s place in a growing African podcasting ecosystem which we need to address?"

The panelists were:

Kameel Stanley, the senior producer of The City, a podcast from USA TODAY that explores how power works in urban American. Kameel is based in St Louis, Missouri

Shandukani Mulaudzi, Executive Producer of Podcasts, Children’s Radio Foundation

Paula Rogo, Co-founder of Africa Podfest and owner of Kali Media. She hosts her own podcast  on women and entrepreneurship in E. Africa titled, “I Have No Idea What I’m Doing.”

Thanks to the Africa Podfest organisers Paula Rogo, Josephine Karianjahi and Melissa Mbugua for all their hard work. And thanks to the panelists for a great discussion

To watch all the virtual panel discussions from Africa Podfest go here.

Image care of Africa Podfest

 

Father Michael Lapsley was born in New Zealand, today he considers himself a citizen of the world. He moved to South Africa in 1973 to continue his training as a priest in an order of the Anglican Church. In 1976 he was sent into exile by the apartheid government. After joining the ANC he spent his time traveling the world mobilising faith communities against apartheid and ministering to South African's living in exile.  Three months after the release of Nelson Mandela he was blown up by a letter bomb sent by the Civil Cooperation Bureau, an apartheid era death squad. He lost both hands and an eye in the attack.

We talked about his early work ministering to students in South Africa, his journey from pacifist to freedom fighter, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and the work of his organisation the Institute for Healing of Memories he founded in 1998.

He spoke about how he has become a citizen of the world, his identity shaped by listening to the pain of the human family.