Johannesburg is a city of contrasts. There are the rich areas and the poor areas. There are the posh suburbs with huge homes, electric fences running around them and the townships made up of thousands of tin huts surrounded by huge mounds of garbage waiting to be cleared. An aerial view of the city shows the hinterland as dry grasslands. This is where the townships are located. But the city itself is the largest artificial forest in the world. Sandton, the part of the city where we were staying compares favourably to any first world city. It has glass-fronted shopping malls with the latest goods from around the globe. It has tall towers reaching for the sky housing hotels, offices, shops and convention centres all interconnected by sky walks to prevent its visitors from having to walk the dangerous streets.

Ilmas Futehally with

Dr Ahmad Motala

The drive from the airport to the hotel in Sandton was revealing. It was 9 am on a weekday morning. Just outside the Alexandra township, there were a large groups of Black men waiting by the sides of the road- waiting to be offered a job for the day by one of the contactors who are busy rebuilding the affluent parts of the city. This in itself is not unusual. What was different in Johannesburg was the fact that only a fraction of them would end up getting employed on that day - and this showed on their faces, in their postures�€�. The rate of unemployment in some areas currently stands at 50-60 per cent, and it is the youth that cannot find jobs. And there is a large amount of migration taking place from other African countries, which look upon South Africa as the land of opportunity. The taxi driver spoke about the crime that pervades the city: mainly robberies, armed hold-ups, break-ins and car theft.

Dr Ahmad Motala of the Center for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation (CSVR) described the high rate of crime in Johannesburg as �€œresidual violence�€. Before 1994, when South Africa became democratic ending the Apartheid era, there was state violence and severe repression. Despite the introduction of democracy, the socio-economic disparities continued to widen. At the moment, the economy of South Africa is dominated by large conglomerates and it is very difficult for small enterprises to enter the market. As the larger South African companies are going more and more global, there is not much benefit from this trickling down to the poor, enabling them to migrate to the middle class.

Apart from the social and economic deprivation, there is also political deprivation, as there is no credible opposition to the African National Congress (ANC), which is inclusive of all the Black tribes, while the National Party, the current opposition party is seen as a White Liberal Party. Thus the high levels of crime and violence in South Africa are a direct result of a deficit of democracy, development and dignity.

The Government of South Africa is very aware of this problem and is doing what it can to change the situation for the people of South Africa, especially the poor living in townships and rural areas. It is planning to introduce low income subsidies and tackling the issue of skill development.

The government of South Africa is also putting emphasis on creating education opportunities for deprived students. Mr Hemant Waghmarae, an educationalist of Indian origin said there are reservations in educational institutions to enable the black youth to participate in the higher levels of the economy, something that they were unable to do during the years of Apartheid. In fact, at that time schooling only until the 8th level was available to Black students. One of the justifications for apartheid was made by White clerics who interpreted certain passages of the Bible to mean that the Black people were only meant for hewing wood and performing manual labour for their White masters. Therefore it was thought unnecessary to educate the Black children beyond purely functional literacy. Now the reservations are creating other kinds of tensions, as students who are doing well in school are loath to give up their seat at an institution of higher education on the justification that it is required to make the playing field level in the future.

Mr Jay Naidoo, former Secretary General of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU), believes that technology can play a big role in creating inclusion, in bringing in a large number of people into the productive economy, in putting disposable income into the hands of people and in recreating the spirit of entrepreneurship that was destroyed by Apartheid. He was the Minister of Posts, Telecommunications and Broadcasting at the time that mobile phone technology came to South Africa The government�€™s policy for universal access helped in creating economic activity in the rural areas. For example, prepaid schemes allowed rural farmers to find out about prices and cut out the middle men. New technologies in the future can have a similar positive impact.

Thus, thirteen years into its freedom South Africa is a country that is at a critical junction. Will its long walk beyond freedom lead to greater inclusion for its people and enable all its citizens to get integrated into the mainstream? Will there be social, political and economic empowerment for all its citizens? Will the electric fences that keep people apart come down and give way to a more open society? Will President Mbeki�€™s vision of creating an African Renaissance, where the African people build the continent without relying on foreign aid, and exploit the natural resources of Africa (of which there are many) for the benefit of Africans at large, rather than a few individuals, succeed? Or will the walls that keep the rich apart from the poor grow higher? Will crime and violence take over and get entrenched in the psyche of the nation? Will parents continue to name their daughters "Yesterday", with a sense of defeat about their future?