Radical

D minus 19

"What on earth have you three been colluding about?" Kate asked, noticing the first item on the agenda for the cabinet meeting. Moagi, Siza, and Theresa were smiling at each other conspiratorially, and seemed excited.

"Patience," said Moagi, the minister of infrastructure and transport, with a broad smile. He made a mock bow to Theresa. "Madame, the floor is yours."

"Thank you," replied the minister of safety, with a joking curtsy in return.

"Colleagues, the three of us have been evaluating which areas most crucially need upgrades or infrastructure, within our various departmental priorities. Moagi realised that almost every place he found either had a police station nearby, or desperately needed one. When he and I saw how much overlap we had, we dragged in Siza, too." Theresa gestured to both her colleagues as she spoke. "We compared our lists a few weeks ago."

"I was looking principally at safe banking," continued Siza. "Moagi was struggling with water and services to very cramped informal settlements in semi-urban places. Theresa just wants to fix up half of her stations and put CCTV in all of them. Moagi joked that I should put ATMs in police stations, and it sort of took off from there." Siza drew their attention to the projector screen, and Theresa clicked to a slide with a map of the country. There were ten light blue stars in various smallish towns.

"We've come up with Care Centres," continued Siza. "Small retail setups that incorporate a police station and a taxi rank, with some other facilities."

"Once Moagi pointed out that banks might rent space in the lobbies of police stations," said Theresa, "we realised that adding a transport hub would minimise exposure for travellers who need to draw cash."

"And then we thought that if we added some basic stores so that people could buy what they need easily..." Moagi added.

"And then I realised having small spaces available for hawkers and other informal businesses would help get small producers to market," Siza continued, waving her hands excitedly.

"Why are you calling them Care Centres, though?" asked Juno.

"I'm going to put in facilities for showering and laundry," explained Moagi. "We're ironing out some difficulties, like shower timers and fittings that are difficult to remove or damage, but we reasoned that people from the nearby unserviced settlements would at least be able to get a warm shower on their way to work or shops."

"And since we want the whole complex monitored by CCTV anyway, for response from the police station if necessary, we think it could help people feel safer. Not inside the shower cubicles, of course," added Theresa, "but we can certainly keep a perpetual eye on the more public spaces."

"I've been looking for a way to bribe the taxi industry to behave better," said Kamo. "This could be a very good option."

"I like it, too" said Kate. "Any objections?" She looked around the table.

"Only my usual one," said Ofentse. "How much? How soon?"

"Moagi's been sounding out the banks and looking at anchor tenants," replied Theresa. "We have our wish-list drawn up, and we're waiting to see how well Nonto's small contractor school project works out. I've been worrying about how to approach the taxi industry, but I think Kamo just volunteered..." She looked at him with a big smile, eyebrows raised.

Kamo nodded. Was he almost smiling? wondered Kate.

"These ten," said Siza, pointing at the projector screen again, "all desperately need all those facilities. They can be good test cases without turning the local mini-economies upside down. They won't step on anyone's toes, and they'll be viable to sell off even if we turn out terrible at managing malls."

"How much?" asked Ofentse again.

"They can probably pay for themselves, in a couple of years," said Moagi.

Kate's eyes widened with surprise.

Her expression was echoed by Ofentse. "Explain?" he asked Moagi.

"Three anchor tenants apart from the banks; groceries, clothes and take-aways. Fairly small shops. 5 000 square meters at R50 per square meter is R6 million in rental, over two years," Moagi replied. "We won't be putting in marble floors and concealed lighting."

"Sounds too good to be true," said Kate. "I'm pessimistically excited to see your feasibility studies."

"We're working on those, give us a couple more months," promised Theresa.