Last year, the South African Government launched a review of local government, and came up with some pretty damning findings. This has resulted in the launch of an ambitious Local Government Turnaround Strategy aimed at addressing the internal factors (e.g. quality of decision-making by Councillors, quality of appointments, transparency of tender and procurement systems, and levels of financial management and accountability) as well as the external factors (e.g. revenue base and income generation potential, inappropriate legislation and regulation, demographic patterns and trends, macro and micro-economic conditions, undue interference by political parties and weaknesses in national policy, oversight and inter-governmental relations) bedevilling local government.

The focus by national government on local government is to be welcomed. It is after all the sphere of government that has the greatest impact on our day-to-day lives. Of equal significance is the stated abandonment of a ‘one size fits all’ approach that has predominated government thinking for the past 15 years. The adoption of a differentiated approach means that the governance of our metropolitan areas – the engine rooms of the SA economy as well as areas of growing poverty and unemployment – can finally be taken seriously.

The jury is still out whether Government’s new local government strategy is going to succeed when previous attempts, such as Project Consolidate, didn’t seem to make much impact. I hope to cover these issues in more detail as the strategy unfolds. For the moment, as a contribution to the debate, here is a paper on Lessons from South Africa’s Local Government Transition, focusing on metropolitan government, that I presented at a recent international workshop.

Twenty years ago, on 11 February 1990, I watched Nelson Mandela’s release on a small TV in our rented house in Isidingo Road in Yeoville, Johannesburg. I had moved from Cape Town to Johannesburg in 1989, with my wife Nike Romano to work for an NGO called Planact. I remember getting highly irritated with SATV reporter Clarence Kayter’s seemingly inane remarks (”The sun is not just for the growing of grapes but the sun is shining on South Africa.”) while he tried to fill the time before Mandela eventually emerged from Victor Verster Prison. I watched with pride as Cape Town became the first city to welcome a free Mandela as he spoke to the world from the small balcony of the City Hall in front of a massive crowd on the Grand Parade.

A few days later, it was our turn in Johannesburg, as we went to the Soccer City Stadium near Soweto with 100 000 others to welcome Mandela, Walter Sisulu and the other political leaders. Having endured, with so many other South Africans, a decade of detention, banning, living underground during the State of Emergency and friends and comrades dying in detention or going into exile, it was one of the most euphoric periods of my life.

The huge crowd at Soccer City waits expectantly for Mandela's arrival

A shaft from the West Reef gold mine provides a backdrop to the packed crowd

The moment we had all been waiting for - Mandela and his comrades do a lap of honour

Nike and I savour the moment

"An occasion to be remembered by everyone". My brother Jeremy gets into the swing of the celebrations

Twenty years on, as we reflect on the changes that have taken place in South Africa, and in our own lives, I would like to echo the words of Njabulo Ndebele in a recent Sunday Times article, Long Walk Remains: “So, as we recall Mandela walking out of prison, we must contemplate how he walked not only out of a physical prison, but also out of many emotional and conceptual prisons, and took us along with him… This thought allows us to attempt to identify prisons we must walk out of 20 years after Mandela left the prison of apartheid – those that we carry deep within ourselves and which hold us back.”

Njabulo concludes, and I agree with him: “South Africa desperately needs new politics in which the actors understand the full implications of abundant new opportunities for people to rediscover one another and to build the country. Today we know that diversity in thinking is a national asset.”

One of the less succesful aspects of the 2010 Final Draw experience was the stereotypical way in which we persist in portraying South Africa to the rest of the world. I visited the South African Host Cities exhibition space at the CTICC and was shocked to see how we continue to reinforce colonial views of Africa and South Africa. If you look at the imagery used by SA Tourism and by most of the host cities, you would swear that South Africa consists primarily of scenic beauty, wild animals and people in rural areas in traditional dress. Where is the urban culture? Where is the science and technology? Where are our universities, innovative people and ideas, modern infrastructure and telecommunications, creative industries? Where is life in our townships and inner cities? Where is qwaito, hip hop, rap, reggae, Cape jazz? Where are the taxi ranks and train stations, the markets and shopping malls, the shebeens and spaza shops – the places that real South Africans frequent? Have a look for yourself and decide…

The old Satour still alive and well?

Come to South Africa, you don't have to meet real peoople

Rikshas and 'traditional Zulu maidens' make their reappearence

Only Johannesburg portrays a glimpse of urban life

Even Cape Town is not immune from cliches - winelands, coons and Robben Island

Nelson Mandela Bay trying hard with Jimmy Dludlu, more 'traditional maidens' and an obviously posed photo of mixed couples at the beach

Yup, more 'traditional maidens', wild animals and wide open spaces again

As Mariette Du Toit-Helmbold, CEO of Cape Town Tourism, put it to me in a balanced way: “Cape Town must be presented to the world as a vibey, cosmopolitan capital of culture, with a modern living culture that resonates with its citizens. It is scenic beauty, wine, wildlife, ocean and mountain, but it is also so much more and yes, the “other side” is often missing in promotions and displays”

SACN CEO Sithole Mbanga opening the conference at the historic Feathermarket Hall in Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality

Deputy Minister of Local Government Yunus Carrim

Deputy Minister of Transport Jeremy Cronin

Further information on the forthcoming State of the Cities Report is available from the South African Cities Network