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Beating the backlogs: Improving service delivery in southern Africa

FIFA 2010 Column - Business Day

Articles written for the 2010 Column which features in Business Day

Centre for Service Delivery executive director Dr Udesh Pillay, writes a regular 2010 Column for Business Day. The HSRC wishes to acknowledge Business Day for granting permission to reproduce these articles. The following is a record of the columns written to date:

2008

 

Penny will drop for Blatter 14 October 2008
WHEN former president Thabo Mbeki was ousted from government four weeks ago, Fifa president Sepp Blatter and secretary-general Jerome Valcke must have been worried men - although I am told that they expressed this rather privately ...
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On the international stage 30 September 2008
THIS week's column was to have been about performance. Principally, Bafana Bafana's performance, or lack thereof, juxtaposed against the achievements of the South African Paralympics team ...
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Kicking around 2010 assumptions 16 September 2008
MAJOR international sporting events have an extraordinary capacity to generate powerfully emotional shared experiences. Sport has historically been employed as a means to enhance nation-building ...
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The harm of Essop's fables 2 September 2008
WITH Beijing's political baggage presumably packed away, and the mega-event focus shifting to SA, a rip has appeared in the weave of multicultural post-apartheid identity ...
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Getting our house in order, 19 August 2008
AT EIGHT  minutes past eight, on the eighth day of the eighth month of 2008, the world's attention was firmly focused on Beijing. In China, eight is considered ...
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Cup has given us space to talk, 5 August 2008
I'VE BEEN providing  a variety of perspectives on the 2010 World Cup for more than 18 months in this column. It's been an interesting experience as I've been trying to distil some of the big issues ...
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Chance to bring out best in leaders, 22 July 2008
AS EXCITED as I am about the 2010 Fifa World Cup in SA, I haven't been thinking about it much recently. I think I have been consumed - like most other South Africans by the alarming rate at which our society seems to be disintegrating. 
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Zuma will give SA fresh scoring chances, 8 July 2008
WHAT role is Jacob Zuma likely to play in relation to the 2010 World Cup, especially as he has begun to outline - both domestically and abroad - a variety of policy stances on some critical issues facing the nation. 
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SA needs to do the maths on World Cup tradeoffs, 27 May 2008
THE transformation of education in post-apartheid SA has accompanied a heightened responsiveness to the country's need for pro-poor priorities. There is a tightly woven connection between education and socioeconomic development.
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World Cup can get the ball rolling on service delivery, 13 May 2008
FOURTEEN years into its new, democratic dispensation, SA continues to face a critical lag in service delivery. While the situation can be attributed to a range of extenuating circumstances (from the political economy and geopolitics, to practical challenges around delivery capacity and intergovernmental relations), there remain very clear and urgent moral, social, economic and political imperatives.
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Labour's love lost on the 2010 preparation stage, 29 April 2008
THE birthing of SA's 2010 stadiums and infrastructure has been accompanied by its fair share of labour pains. In developmental spin: employment growth and associated poverty reduction is purported to occur as a direct consequence of the injection...
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Transport and tribulations, 25 March 2008
PEOPLE need to move. I have been spending a good proportion of my time motionless when I should have been mobile - frustratingly fixed in a vast... 
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Why realism is healthy as 2010 creeps closer, 11 March 2008
SOUTH Africans are generally a trusting people. For the third consecutive year their attitudes remain positive towards the 2010 Soccer World Cup. 
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2007

 

A chance for the Cinderella cities, 4 December 2007
I LEFT Durban 15 years ago and will never return. I find the people insular, the politics parochial and the pace pedestrian.  I find Cape Town an equally unappealing place in which to live and work... 
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Rugby lessons for SA soccer, 10 November 2007
PRESIDENT Thabo Mbeki must be a very relieved man. Or at least he was a few weeks ago. Amid a national crisis, the Springboks won the Rugby World Cup... 
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A branding bridge too far for a demoralised nation, 6 November 2007
IT IS plausible that German Chancellor Angela Merkel, and those involved in Germany's branding campaign for the 2006 Fifa World Cup, may have been correct, initially, in their assertion that the 2010 Word Cup presents SA with a unique opportunity... 
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Nation of complication, 23 October 2007
DELAYS in stadium construction and infrastructure must be causing Fifa and the World Cup local organising committee concern. Repeated disruptions to construction at Green Point stadium, and similar interruptions to work on the Gautrain, have occasioned... 
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SA's neighbours run risk of overshooting the goal, 9 October 2007
THERE seems to be a recent recognition that the 2010 Soccer World Cup is unlikely to deliver on its African legacy promise as articulated by the national government and the Local Organising Committee (LOC).  
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Imperfect future after 2010, 25 September 2007
THE 2010 Soccer World Cup, with less than 1000 days to go before kick off, has now reached its "operational" phase, according to Local Organising Committee head Danny Jordaan. Recently enumerating the committee's achievements...   
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Exploring the dynamics of ‘sensational' urban change, 11 September 2007 
THERE is a growing literature in urban geography that talks about the recent emergence of the "sensational" city. These are cities with spectacular iconic buildings, exciting vibrant streetscapes and prestigious cultural and sports eve...  
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The two sharp edges of the instrastructure sword, 28 August 2007
SUPPLY-side constraints are wreaking havoc on our country's large public works programmes, and it is likely to get worse as our economy grows, commodities boom andconsumption increases. 
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Africa's lost opportunity, 14 August 2007
THERE has been much talk about the potential of the 2010 Fifa World Cup to leave behind a lasting African legacy. Some analysts have even gone so faras to suggest that this will be the event's biggest contribution. 
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Nqakula and Selebi must lead from the front in war against crime, 31 July 2007
THE release of crime statistics a few weeks ago once again put the spotlight on the 2010 World Cup, in particular the implications for the event of the increases in aggravated robbery and murder. 
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A call to those in control ... even in the ANC, 17 July 2007
I CAME in for a fair amount of stick at an international poverty conference in Durban recently where, addressing a gathering of scholars and activists, I was called naive for hypothesising two years ago that the 2010 Fifa World Cup presented SA with a unique opportunity to fast-track... 
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Dual goals of Wold Cup not contradictory, 3 July 2007
IT IS tempting to see the legacy that 2010 needs to leave behind in terms articulated exclusively in the language of 'social justice'. On other words, there is a body of thought that posits that, for 2010 to have been deemed successful... 
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The pessimistic and the defensive jeopardise SA's 2010 ambitions, 22 May 2007
SEPP Blatter, Fifa president, has not helped placate continuing international concerns as to whether SA will be ready to host the 2010 World Cup. 
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Chinese foibles less threat than our violent crime, 8 May 2007
CHINA seems to be increasingly concerned about how its public behaves - ahead of and during - the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. Officials are anxious about the behaviour of their citizens... 
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Think and consult before embarking on research on the Soccer World Cup, 24 April 2007
I have written extensively as a scholar and public commentator on 2010 for the past two years, and have an edited book due... 
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Getting the guaranteed basics right on safety, security and 2010, 10 April 2007
BEING a serious fan of the 2010 Fifa World Cup, but also a critic of the planning and implementation phases of the event, two developments over the past fortnight left me feeling extremely positive... 
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Getting transport right, 13 March 2007
I HAVE never been a fan of the Gautrain Rapid Rail Link, and probably never will be. My lack of support for the initiative has less to do with the astronimical cost...
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How a R3bn budget overrun got the boot, 27 February 2007
I AM a big fan of the 2010 World Cup. I think the event has a lot to offer SA, even though assertions that its legacy will benefit the enture continent seem nebulous.
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Coming from behind, 13 February 2007
DANNY Jordaan, CEO of the 2010 local organising committee (LOC), makes lovely PowerPoint presentations. He delivers 30-odd beautifully generated slides with great authority and guile...
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Many start to ask what 2010 means for them, 30 January 2007
FEWER South Africans believe SA will benefit through job creation and economic growth from hosting the 2010 Fifa World Cup than did so a year ago.
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2006

 

Glorious event will need African fusion, 13 October 2006
THERE has been much talk about the potential of the 2010 World Cup to leave behind a lasting legacy for Africa. Some have even gone so far as to suggest that this will be the most meaningful effect of the event... 
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Desired 2010 legacy must be defined, 15 August 2006
IT IS tempting to see the legacy that 2010 needs to leave behind in terms articulated exclusively in the language of "social justice". In other words, there is a body of thought that posits that for 2010 to have been deemed successful...
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