Sitting in what is called the Senior Experts Dialogue on Science, Technology and Innovation and the African Transformation Agenda organised by DST and the UN Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA). Premier David Makhura is delivering a great speech – emphasizing the importance of African cities as innovation hubs for driving the African structural transformation. He has integrated into his thinking about Gauteng all the key ideas from contemporary urbanism – often talking off script! This gives me hope, because here we are in a hotel in the CBD that is steadily filling up with protestors who have come to tell the South African President that he has no right to suppress the release of the state capture report. As Zuma’s lawyers help their client to take on his party and the people of South Africa and in so doing subvert our democracy, listening to Premier David Makhura gives me hope that there are still good political leaders who can rise up to fill the vaccuum when the ‘state capturers’ have been replaced. Even more inspiring is his grasp of the dynamics of the African city, and the growing significance of city leaders on the global stage. I guess with two metros in Gauteng now controlled by the SA, his life has become more complex and interesting. I will be talking later about city infrastructures and innovation in African cities.