Urban growth in Africa is higher than anywhere but, unlike earlier urbanisation trends in the industrialised world, it is not being accompanied by economic growth. The result is a continent that boasts high levels of poverty and inequality and the highest proportion of urban slum dwellers anywhere. Yet Africa has the least developed institutional architecture and infrastructure at the urban scale to effectively respond and to put in place the appropriate policy, regulatory and fiscal environment to address the social challenges of rapid urbanisation.

Within the past 18 years of democratic rule in South Africa, the disparities have hardly been reduced, as is manifest in the realms of education, health, security, and employment. As a former liberation movement, the African National Congress underestimated the tasks ahead when transforming South African society, and the degree to which the apartheid legacy impacted the people's ability to make use of their democratic rights and to call politicians to account for their performance. This book calls for citizen responsibility to shape the nation's future and defend the rights of liberty...