‘The compliance culture that has evolved since 1994 has all but killed the developmental state’ say Mark Swilling, Amanda Gcanga and Andrew Boraine in a hard-hitting recent article in Daily Maverick. They question whether Ramaphosa’s New Dawn can bring the heat and light anticipated, without change in the civil service, which they characterise as being in a state of ‘institutional paralysis’.
As we chat in the café/bar — run as a social enterprise, of course — an earnest meeting of about 20 women is taking place outside, on plastic chairs in the sun. Kids play in the courtyard, there are music classes upstairs. A quick scan of the noticeboard highlights upcoming activities: a social event targeting elderly people; a support session for carers of children with disabilities; a jazz evening. There are legal services for migrants and language classes.
These Pacts of Collaboration are simple contracts that set out the roles and responsibilities of the city and local actors. Turin’s experiments in this regard are supported by a European initiative named Urban Innovative Actions . While the city does provide funding, “the emphasis is on in-kind contributions”, explains Zanasi.
As mayor, Valentino Castellani led a remarkable turnaround of Turin in the 1980s. An academic, not a politician, he was approached by both the left and the right to stand for election in a context in which mass layoffs at Fiat had had a domino effect across the entire local economy, leading to the loss of more than 100,000 jobs.
For example, the city supported Turin’s first “social hotel”. It backed a co-op to renovate a large derelict block. It now comprises 122 small apartments, housing people in transition, for a maximum of 18 months. It also includes 58 cheap hotel rooms and includes wider community facilities such as a library, play areas and an after-school club for children. It has more than 40,000 users a year — and there are now five such co-op-managed social hotels in Turin.