LIKE Johannesburg, Bogota in Colombia is a large, flat, high altitude, industrial heart of a country with the scars of its violent history. In the mid-1990s, two-thirds of “Bogotanos” believed the city had no future. Now, two-thirds believe the future is filled with hope. What happened to turn this around?

Recently, the University of Pretoria’s Gordon Institute of Business Science hosted Antanas Mockus, the two-term mayor of Bogota through the mid-90s and early 2000s. A quiet, intellectual mathematician and philosopher, he helped change the face of the violent capital of Colombia through educative invention. He was brought to SA by the Human Sciences Research Council to engage with the public, state and private sector on his citizen-centred approach to combating crime and violence.

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