Uploaded on 2014-10-18 by Bozzie

![enter image description here][1] [1]: https://edxuploads.s3.amazonaws.com/1413658231729463.jpg Perhaps I have not understood this question properly, I thought the picture should be taken on a construction site...anyway, this is in Sandton Johannesburg, the business hub of South Africa and this building will be the new head office for MacDonalds.....I was fortunate to have a walk around here. Some current Socio political history quickly.... South Africa(like many African Countries) is rich in natural resources however, rife corruption, blatant theft by the government of taxpayers money and a severe lack of economical understanding by leaders will have a lasting impact on the stress that will be placed on the successful implementation of "Future Cities" in Africa and sub saharan Africa including my country. Already our country favours enriching the pockets of the ruling party to the detriment of its own people and this will have severe and lasting shockwaves in the decades to come. Unions are scaring big investors away but still the masses slowly descend on the cities looking for a life and there is not much work available...this places a huge burden on an already stressed economy... When we look at this building, I can tell you that the steel, cement/concrete, bricks and scaffold that you can see are all manufactured locally. The glass that you can see is not, it is imported from America at great expense. Our currency is the "South African Rand" and you need eleven of them to buy ONE US dollar. The glass arrives in unpolished sheets, gets cut, polished and hardened here and then delivered to the site. If one go's inside you find meters and meters of cabling being drawn, most of the IT cabling is imported and most electrical wiring is local. Down in the basement are "Otis" boxes from China, these contain the elevators, to the very last nut and bolt. I will need to do more research on why the glass comes in from America as well as why the miles of IT cabling is imported. We have plants here manufacturing for some of the major global car brands....Toyota, Mercedes and BMW are three...so... We should be able to do glass and IT cable. If one looks at the quoted example of the imbalance being created is Addis Ababa due to imports, then we need to learn a lesson about sustainability and job and skills creation going forward from places like Singapore. Until we do, we will continue to slide towards becoming a nation burdened by mismanagement as opposed to a lack of resources, we have incredible potential if management systems could be correctly implemented. Hope this makes sense.