PRINCE AFRICA ZULU
Today, as global economies are scrambling their way out of the global pandemic and struggling to recover from a post-pandemic recession, it is even more important for South Africa, a country leading in terms of the world’s unemployment statistics, to use this moment to sit around the proverbial fireplace and look at its plan for post-Covid recovery.
SA has moved from a pioneering nation of Africa to a nation more reactive in its stance on socio-economic development, citizen support, improved livelihood and overall citizen’s well-being. It is this very reactive stance that is creating increased poverty and unemployment. It is therefore not a shocking discovery to know that without a strategy that is well communicated, well developed and involves all stakeholders, one can only expect increased crime, decreased investor confidence and decreased hope in the nation that professes to be at the dawn of a new era.
The last 30 years are regarded as a democratic era for South Africa. Nelson Mandela once said that the battle of his generation was that of political freedom and the struggle for economic emancipation is the challenge facing this generation.
In order to produce the correct and effective response; we need a frank evaluation of the governance and policy failures that have prevailed during this democratic dispensation.
Despite a flood of new policy documents aimed at driving economic growth, such as the New Growth Path (NGP), the Industrial Policy Action Plans (IPAP), and the National Development Plan (NDP).
At the macro-economic level, Inflation-adjusted GDP per capita has been falling since 2013 and has remained stagnant since 2007. This contrasts with the previous 8-year period from 1999-2007 in which per capita real GDP increased by 26%.
Electricity production has fallen by 10% since the 2011 highs and is now at the same levels it was in 2003. Manufacturing output remains stagnant at 2005 levels, as is construction activity.
In terms of economic performance, South Africa remains at the bottom of the pile when compared with similar sized emerging economies.
According to the World Bank, South Africa’s inflation-adjusted GDP per capita increased 3% from 2007 to 2014. Over that period the same measure for Botswana was up 18%, Chile 19%, Malaysia 22%, Colombia 24%, and Mauritius 28%.
South Africa’s high-income inequality (the estimated Gini coefficient is greater than 0.5 and is growing annually) creates socio-economic challenges and is a barrier to economic growth.
This is the time to consider questions such as where should we be in our fight for economic emancipation, in a world that is coming out of a global pandemic, a Russia-Ukraine war and a global recession? How do we identify and capacitate the neglected portions of society to transform from hot spots of criminality and crime, a leader in gender-based violence and dehumanising poverty; to being entrepreneurs that were exporting products and gaining markets internationally?
Since the advent of democracy, little has been done to develop globally acknowledged companies from the many South African townships and its rural areas (excluding commercial farmers).
It is estimated that up to 64% of the urban hostel population lives in extreme poverty. Hostels were designed to house mine and other industry labourers. Through the migrant labour system and control of accommodation, the hostels, meant that the workforce could be controlled and prevented from organising itself to oppose unjust and unfair practices. Migrant workers were usually temporary, contracted for a specific period, in most cases, they were ethnically segregated, undermining racial and class unity
The relevant law that was used to regulate and control the hostel system under apartheid was the Bantu Laws Amendment Act No 76 of 1963, which spelt out that accommodation for Africans in "white" areas would be provided in locations for single workers in hostels, these workers would have to commute to their homes on a weekly or monthly basis. If no hostel accommodation was available the Africans would have to return to their ethnic homeland.
The majority of hostels (private and public sector) in South Africa provide accommodation for single men. Among the public sector hostels, there are a handful providing accommodation for single women.
The largest number of hostels are found in the Gauteng and the largest hostels are also found there: Meadowlands Hostel (with 10 432 beds), Nguni Hostel in Vosloorus (10 400), Katlehong Hostel (13 500), Sebokeng Hostel in Vanderbijlpark (11 944), Tembisa Hostel in Kempton Park (16 323) and Mamelodi Hostel in Pretoria (10 948).
In KZN, the largest hostels are in Durban, the uMlazi-Glebe Hostel (10 624 beds), the KwaMashu Hostel (> 10 000) and the SJ Smith Hostel (4 264 beds).
In the Free State the largest hostels are in Thabong, Welkom (6 944 beds), Zamdela, Sasolburg (5 944 beds) and Mangaung, Bloemfontein (3 888 beds).
The system of administration in hostels has historically been to control rather than to deliver services. This was true of private as well as municipal hostels. Today this system of administration has affected the quality of life provided for hostel residents.
Hostel dwellers were found to fill the lower echelons of the job market being employed as labourers in factories and building sites and as security guards. Low educational levels, unemployment and economic depression imply low job mobility for most hostel residents.
The rationale behind the establishment of the hostel system was justified by the homeland system of mid-apartheid, which in turn was key to the migrant labour system, serving several functions – mainly reducing the cost of reproducing labour.
In the major metropolitan areas of Johannesburg, Durban, Pretoria, Cape Town, Port Elizabeth, East London, Pietermaritzburg and Bloemfontein, urban population growth consists of the natural growth of the urban population and the in-migration from rural areas.
According to the Urban Foundation, natural population increase accounts for two-thirds of urban growth and migration accounts for a third. It is projected that up to 69% of the total South African population will be living in urban areas by 2025. The urban population is increasingly black and youthful.
One of the results of the late capitalist de-industrialisation of the South African economy is that hostels have lost their initial function and purpose leading to a decline in their contribution to the GDP.
Along with this decline comes other social pathologies such as increasing incidents of crime, violence, poverty and GBV. Since the early 1990s, there has not been any serious policy discussion about how to turn this situation around.
South Africa can do well to look at comparable developing economies such as China, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam and the so-called Asian Tigers to consider the strategies these economies adopted that led them on a fast-paced development trajectory.
How do we then as citizens of respective bodies, occupying various positions in the social hierarchy and of respective education and LSM levels, ensure that our neglected hostel communities are first officially recognised in society as hostels (not as a grey unaddressed subset of the townships)? Post recognition, there ought to be custom-made methods to identify the problems of this society and tailor solutions to their problems.
The Asian countries were once in abject poverty. It took a leadership that was decisive to transform them into the powerhouses they are today. The changes started small and incrementally such as China ensuring each household manufactures a portion of a garment that is ordered for sale. These small changes birthed the manufacturing hubs one sees today.
South Africa needs to have skilled artisans as backbone of the economy emerging from hostels. We need to have dialogue an discussion through conferences and exhibitions on the challenges faced by hostels residents and the communities around the space of hostels.
There needs to be the birth of small businesses (enterprising of hostels) in these hostels that promote the circulation of the rand within these areas. As available data suggests, the population of hostel residents is comparatively youthful – this presents an opportunity to experiment with the technology boom, new start-up models and creative disruption of the old tried and tested approaches.
This will birth sustainability of the enterprises and ensure access to global markets.
What we are advocating for is that to change the country, it is the silenced and neglected segments of our society that require more attention and urgent interventions – failure to do this may result in consequences so great – no amount of reactive responses will be able to reverse the direction of the damage. We need to think outside the box, we need to dig deeper and or people need to see tangible results.
The success of SA in the next 30 years will not lie on who leads the country and the metros politically.
The success will be on identifying the long-neglected segments of society, identify skills shortages, re-skill or up-skill them and convert them into hubs of entrepreneurship to reinstate hope for our people who live in the shadows in their own lands. The township economy has very well documented policies and programmes but none have developed any notable change for township entrepreneurs. If anything load shedding and lack of access to financing and wi-fi free zones, destroyed the very same entrepreneurs that the policies were trying to build.
Hostels do not have that luxury. Hostels may be considered a subset of the township but hostels have unique challenges to townships. This is why very few beneficiaries of the township economy belong in the hostels.
Developing a post-Covid-19 economic recovery strategy can only be achieved by ensuring the availability of data on hostels. We must know their skills. We have to know how families in hostels are structured.
We have to have a commitment from Skills and Education and Training Authorities (SETAs) to reskilling such persons in skills that will not be lost when the hostel residents move in between rural and urban areas.
Hostels must contribute to the production of artisans of the country. We have to enhance awareness of hostels in our communities by hosting events around the issues affecting such places. Hostels have to be guided so as to lead in the creation of sustainable businesses that will be able to compete globally.
This is not a vision that can be carried by one person alone. Skills creation is the backbone of this vision. It is not a vision that will need political or ethnic differences. It is a vision that calls for unity, sleeves rolled up and a pulling in one direction. It is a vision that if executed well will directly contribute to the township economy and to the GDP of the country. It is a vision that if neglected by all of us will still mean people are excluded outside of the economy and without hope and worsen the social pathologies plaguing our society.
It is only when the bottom of the barrel is addressed that the entire population can stand to grow sustainably. This is my submission of creating a post-covid economic recovery plan that will benefit the whole country.
Prince Africa Zulu is the chairperson of the KwaZulu Royal Patriots, which is King Misuzulu’s investment arm.
Get in touch for further discussions and to support the campaign by emailing zulu.africa@icloud.com
Daily News