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Turnaround hero asked to do it in Gauteng Khulekani Magubane, Business Day, Johannesburg, 7 July 2014 In 2007, it seemed that the Department of Home Affairs was perilously close to collapse, but a radical turnaround programme got it back on its feet and functioning again. Among those credited for the revitalisation is Jacob Mamabolo, one of its former chief directors and the recently appointed Gauteng human settlements MEC. The burning question, however, is can he perform this feat again? He believes he can. But Mr Mamabolo 's new task may let turning home affairs around seem like a walk in the park. Gauteng is rapidly urbanising and the influx into South Africa's richest province is not expected to slow down. Many of those who flood into Gauteng seeking economic opportunity cannot afford formal accommodation, leading to the constant growth of informal settlements throughout the province. Mr Mamabolo is one of several public servants who served in national government and have been deployed to provincial government as part of the African National Congress's (ANC's) efforts to use experienced administrators and bureaucrats in the lower spheres of government - especially in faltering departments. For instance, former basic education department spokesman Panyaza Lesufi is now MEC for education in Gauteng. During his state of the province address last month Gauteng Premier David Makhura said his administration would prioritise, among other things, "the modernisation of human settlements and urban development". With the local government elections approaching in 2016, the ANC will have to prove to voters that its policies and programmes will have a substantial positive effect on their living conditions. With declining support in Gauteng - as was proven in the recent national polls - the ANC's metropolitan municipalities are at risk of losing further support to opposition parties. Bureaucrats such as Mr Mamabolo have their work cut out for them, and very little time to persuade voters that the ANC can deliver a better life in Gauteng. Also the provincial secretary of the South African Communist Party, Mr Mamabolo was among those who led a march last year to the Johannesburg Housing Company against the eviction of inner- city residents. He now leads a department tasked with addressing challenges such as the eviction of residents in Alexandra Township last month, when it emerged that they were occupying land illegally. Mr Mamabolo has big plans for the human settlements department, including investigating new, cost-effective models for housing. He muses about the suitability of high-rise buildings similar to housing projects in China. "If you take a place with a high population and informal settlements covering a lot of land, you can optimise the space using megabuildings. The RDP (Reconstruction and Development Programme) system as it is doesn't help, because once they are built people just build shacks around them," he says. Mr Mamabolo is under no illusion about the problems in Gauteng's housing allocation system. He knows he has to clear "a bottomless pit" of unknown people on the waiting list for homes. He is also aware that dissatisfaction with the government's housing programme is a common catalyst for service delivery protests. "The 2016 elections are coming and people are already speculating that we will be the generation of ANC leaders to lose the province. But we are not getting caught sleeping. If you look recently, no protest in the province has lasted for over two days. We enter areas and manage the problems swiftly," Mr Mamabolo says. His decade of service in national government began in the Department of Correctional Services, dealing with staff management. Since then he has served at the Department of Public Works and managed "the biggest, most successful turnaround strategy" in government history at home affairs. The project included expediting the processing of documentation at home affairs offices and the introduction of biometric data, in most cases reducing the turnaround time for identity book processing from 127 days to 45 days. A teacher by training, Mr Mamabolo's involvement in politics has its roots in his school days . In the early 1990s he was elected president of the student representative council at Mokopane College in Limpopo. He led the kind of protests he will try to quell during the next five years. "We went to Mokopane College in the late 1980s during the state of emergency. While police were patrolling the streets we were protesting in high school over the matter of corporal punishment," he says. "I was thoroughly beaten in high school, so one day when it happened I had had enough and decided to leave. My friends convinced me to stay and fight and I did." Mr Mamabolo cut his political teeth in the South African Students Congress at the University of the North and the University of Pretoria. He led the student movement in a march to the Johannesburg Stock Exchange in 1997, protesting against what it viewed as business's selective funding of universities. Mxolisi Xayiya, special adviser to Mr Makhura on service delivery intervention, says social infrastructure that is being developed without consulting affected communities almost invariably collapses or provokes protest. "If you haven't agreed with the community on social projects there will always be a dispute further down the line. "We won't take seven years to build houses or renovate a hostel for residents. We are committing to shortening periods for these projects and ensuring that the right people come into the system," Mr Xayiya says. From: http://www.bdlive.co.za/national/2014/07/07/turnaround-hero-asked-to-do-it-i n-gauteng -- -- You are subscribed. This footer can help you. Please POST your comments to [email protected] or reply to this message. You can visit the group WEB SITE at http://groups.google.com/group/yclsa-eom-forum for different delivery options, pages, files and membership. To UNSUBSCRIBE, please email [email protected] . You don't have to put anything in the "Subject:" field. You don't have to put anything in the message part. All you have to do is to send an e-mail to this address (repeat): [email protected] . --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "YCLSA Discussion Forum" group. 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