Zille's challenge to innovators

Helen Zille (Image: GCIS)

The aim of the Better Living Challenge project was to design "green" and alternative products for informal and subsidy housing, her spokesman Zak Mbhele said.

Her government was hoping to capitalise on the creativity of individuals in the business, academic, and public sectors, as part of its 110% Green Campaign, which was announced in 2012 to link environmental goals with economic activities.

"Although there are no specific rewards or tangible incentives that are attached to taking part, the basic idea is that if a small to medium enterprise (SME) has some kind of clever green economy innovation that provides housing or living solutions, then provincial government would help them network with business experts around enterprise development," Mbhele said.

The project would allow for green products or services to be marketed and for the SME to make a return on investment.

Part of the challenge would entail creating eco-friendly show-homes.

"A wide range of products and new technologies will make up these homes and the challenge also involve the first test of new eco-standards for building materials," Mbhele said.

Banks were invited to come up with different financial models for green housing that would not normally qualify for funding.

Zille unveiled the challenge at the Smart Innovation Open Forum in Cape Town.

"We sit on extraordinary potential and possibility in the Western Cape and South Africa. With the right policies we can promote job-creation, growth and development and create replicable innovations that can be spread throughout the continent and beyond," she said at the event.

"In all of this, the role of the government is to make it easy to be an entrepreneur and not be an obstacle to innovation," she said.

Details on the challenge would be made available in the next few months.

Source: Sapa via I-Net Bridge