Future Cities Africa podcast

Dive into the movement flipping Johannesburg's story from 'the city is finished' to 'watch this space'. In just two years Jozi My Jozi has lit up bridges, cleaned streets, built a full-size inner-city football field and signed a deal to revive the High Court precinct, all powered by citizens and smart partnerships.
Guest: Innocent Mabusela, Head of Stakeholder Relations and Communication at Jozi My Jozi
Host: Dan Claassen, Managing Director, Future Cities Africa

Welcome to the Local Government Innovation Series on Future Cities Africa, presented by Business Engineering.

Explore how Swartland Municipality keeps topping national rankings for financial sustainability, ease of doing business, and digital innovation - from launching South Africa's first 'IDP in Your Pocket', to paperless land-use and building-plan portals that unlock rapid development, to turning a devastating 2020 ransomware attack into even stronger systems. Swartland is proof that a small municipality can lead the way.

Guests from Swartland Local Municipality
Joggie Scholtz - Municipal Manager
Alwyn Zaayman - Senior Manager: Development Management
Olivia Fransman - Senior Manager: Strategic Services

Host
Dan Claassen, Managing Director, Future Cities Africa

Dive in to what rapid urbanisation actually looks like on the ground: from the unique challenges of a 30-year-old democracy and a super-young population, to smarter-city solutions that actually work, future-proof planning, and how to deliver services to millions while building climate resilience – without bankrupting municipalities or repeating yesterday's mistakes.

Dan Claassen sits down with Bronwyn Williams, co-author of the explosive new book Survive the AI Apocalypse: A Guide for Solutionists.

It calls the next decade a full-on reset: jobs evaporating, deepfakes everywhere, every old life script burnt to the ground… and a supernova of brand-new choices exploding open.

A lot of people are freaking out – but what if this great shrinkage is actually our continent's biggest breakout moment ever?

Bronwyn's here to flip the fear into firepower. 

Five hard hitting questions: from turning panic into solutionist superpowers, to building future African cities where humans and AI amplify each other instead of one wiping out the other.

Presented by Business Engineering

Guest:
Dawie de Jager, Deputy Municipal Manager, Kouga Local Municipality

Episode Focus:
How Kouga went from financial distress in 2016 to becoming the best-performing municipality in the Eastern Cape (2025 SAPOA | Ratings Africa Awards) and achieving repeated clean audits.

Key Takeaways:
Turnaround Foundation (2016 onwards) Clean, ethical governance and strict financial discipline were non-negotiable
Appointed competent, ethical people despite salary-cap challenges
Strong consequence management for fraud and unethical behaviour
Excellent CFOs enforced compliance with the MFMA led to Kouga's first clean audit and continuous improvement

Performance Management & Oversight Cascaded performance agreements from top to bottom
Introduced Ignite system with monthly tracking and live dashboards
Strong political-administrative alignment and council oversight

Infrastructure & Visible Results Fixed dilapidated bulk water & wastewater treatment works (e.g., state-of-the-art upgrades at KwaNomzamo)
Massive road resealing program (targeting 71% of roads) + new gravel-to-tar projects

Innovation in Service Delivery Smart technology on suction tankers, smart metering pilots, upgraded wastewater plants
Central incident management system: call centre - job dispatch - photo proof - SMS notification - customer rates the service
Ward-based WhatsApp groups, multilingual communication, online building-plan submissions

Digital Transformation (Collaborator & Beyond) Collaborator platform streamlined document management, policy reviews, council resolutions, and agenda preparation
PowerBI service-delivery dashboards give real-time ward-level insights
Early AI exploration: internal search on documents, future WhatsApp AI assistant (with caution)

Future Outlook Balancing cutting-edge tech with the human touch South Africans still value
Embracing AI and smart tools proactively 'so we are not left behind'

Kouga's success recipe = ethical leadership + financial discipline + competent people + smart digital systems that make governance and service delivery transparent, fast, and accountable. A standout example for local government in South Africa.