Emfuleni needs a vibrant agora for post-Covid restoration

Landman hinted that the time had come for a ‘New Deal’ – an idea we discussed several weeks ago.

Also R130bn of this year’s national budget will be allocated as disaster relief. Of that amount R20bn will be spent by local authorities to secure safe water supplies and improved sanitation infrastructure.

Landman is positive, but remains cynical. There is not a shortage of ideas in government, he explains. There are loads of policies and plans. But political will and capacity is absent for implementing plans.

Government will spend billions on unemployed people – R350 per person per month for the duration of the pandemic. The idea is good.

However, we have a notorious inability of honestly in distributing goods and services to the country’s poor masses living in informal settlements, shacks and townships. Crooked councillors and the ways they recently distributed food parcels to the poor, is symptomatic of an endemic paucity of ethics and basic honesty.

Government appears to be ‘cleaning up’ corruption at all levels of government, but it is at the local level where that executive capacity is absent.

In ancient Greece the agora, the city’s market square, was where local residents would informally meet and share ideas in hearty conversations. Indirectly, these community spaces were influential. Rulers of the city state, would have senators and officials leaders listening to what people said.

Many ideas would then be discussed by city leaders. In Greece it shaped democracy – the voice of the people. Similar trends abound in the history of ancient African communities. Agora conversations shaped society.

Today’s agora is social media. Only problem is: it seldom focuses on the betterment of what goes on locally. Where a local social media agora does exist, it is partisan and serves specific interests.

Urban leaders (like those of Emfuleni) need to engage on an agora-type platform, to contemplate local problems of poverty, unemployment, and municipal infrastructure in the interest of all.

By thinking and working locally, there should be enough human resources available, to put to good use government’s allocation of funding for Emfuleni’s water and sanitation infrastructure. Simultaneously we can deal with issues of poverty and unemployment.

What if government’s monthly stipend of R350 for each unemployed worker, could become part of a pay packet that provides for more money for those working on reconstruction, maintenance and the development of local  water and sanitation infrastructure?

We have local knowledge. We understand our community and its needs. We have a potential pool of honest managers, from all walks of life,  who can execute projects, aimed at improving our infrastructure. We’ll also need honest bookkeepers and auditors.

They will support managers at the helm of work projects. Only in local communities where mutual trust exists, do we locate the bedrock of a healthy sense of community and mutual respect.

Central government, the provider of monetary poverty relief and infrastructure funding, should fund municipalities who are in touch with the local agora. It can become part of a government experimental project.

There could well be a restoration of personal dignity amongst previously unemployed individuals. A boon would be additional reward (further education and skills transfers) for participating workers. The spin-off is a culture of nurturing pride and ethics in a materially constructive community.

Government’s humane consideration of the unemployed and the poor is praiseworthy. But, leaders in all walks of life, should simultaneously focus on nurturing a South African sense of pride and dignity. Government’s altruistic investment can then translate into an intangible form of  revenue – moral capital.

Moral capital will be measured in honesty, trust, mutual support and local pride.

In a post-Covid global world the role of the state is bound to change. It may become, in some respects, more isolated and resilient, relying on its citizenry to secure a meaningful role supportive of an inter-dependent global economy. But that starts at the local level.

In the confines of the village, town and even the sometimes impersonal city, moral fibre must be available for communities to productively consume goods and services rendered by the state, in partnership with the private sector.

The market economy has always been in the agora. There is barter, trade and commerce at the square. People are attracted and consume goods, services and ideas. From there good ideas are shared further afield. Social and economic links are established, beyond local spaces. They are the most useful goods and ideas.  These will be disseminated and further developed, well beyond the confines of the local village, town or city.

• The author is an extraordinary professor at North-West University’s Vanderbijlpark campus.