“I think the area that is common between China and our country, lies in the concept of putting people first. The greatest strength of African cities lies in the people, their knowledge, and the way they find solutions to challenges, including access to services in a way that surpasses the efforts of the authorities at any level of government. So the challenge for the authorities and those seeking modernization in the context of chaos and complexity is to establish approaches that narrow the difference between the potentials of the people to find their own solutions for accessing services," Phindile Mkwanazii, Deputy Director of the South Africa National School of Government, said on December 19 at the closing ceremony of the 2024 Beijing Forum on Swift Response to Public Complaints.

She said that the greatest theoretical challenge for South Africa in spending on governance is not just closing the gap between people's actions and what the state can do to best engage them to sustain the modernization trajectory that is required for all.