GCRO presents to officials in the Indian civil service

On 19 October 2015, GCRO hosted 27 senior members of the Indian Administrative Services in a discussion on urbanisation and governance in South Africa. The group were on an 'exposure tour' organized by the Indian Institute for Human Settlements (IIHS). The participants of the tour were some of the most senior bureaucrats across Ministries in India, with two being from the Ministry of Urban Development at the federal level, and one the highest ranking bureaucrat in the state of Maharashtra (home to Mumbai) in charge of housing. Individually, they each have over some 30 years of service in the Indian civil services.

Graeme Gotz led the presentations, with the support of Rashid Seedat (Gauteng Planning Division, Office of the Premier), Margot Rubin (a researcher with the South African Research Chair in Development Planning and Modelling at the University of the Witwatersrand), and Chris Wray and Richard Ballard from GCRO.

The discussions, facilitated by Gautam Bhan and Sathish Selvakumar of the IIHS, revolved around the possibilities of mutual learning across widely diverging contexts. South African cities have far more governance autonomy than Indian cities, and are more effectively able to raise revenue and deliver services. The officials were particularly interested in the financing arrangements in SA local government, and different governance models, evident for example in the use of 'departments' in Cape Town as opposed to government owned municipal entities in Johannesburg.