Across South Africa, many of our towns and cities are hurting. Declining services, unemployment, broken infrastructure, and loss of hope have become part of daily life.
For our founder, Matt Hogarty, this reality once led to frustration and constant complaining, until a moment that changed everything. One simple question from his young daughter cut through the negativity: “Why don’t you do something about it?”
That moment marked the beginning of Love Cities, a movement built on the belief that ordinary people, working together, can restore hope and rebuild their communities.
We provide a trusted platform where communities, organisations, government, and business collaborate to solve local challenges together.
We bring partners together around shared goals, helping them combine skills, resources, and relationships to create greater impact.
We make it easier for partners to access and share financial, human, and informational resources to support their work.
We create spaces to share best practices, research, and new ideas learning from both successes and challenges.
We help amplify important social issues through advocacy, public engagement, and community mobilisation.
Through training, workshops, and mentoring, we support partners to grow stronger, more effective, and more sustainable.
We foster a community of encouragement, practical advice, and shared learning that supports long-term wellbeing.
We help partners track impact, learn from results, and clearly communicate outcomes to stakeholders.
Behind Love Cities is a passionate team of community builders, practitioners, and leaders who believe lasting change happens when people work together.
Transformative leader with experience across civil society, government, academia, and the corporate sector. Judith has held senior leadership roles focused on strategy, systems, policy, and participatory development. She is passionate about collaboration and long-term social transformation.
Community development practitioner based in the KZN Midlands. Justin began his career in education before completing an MBA at the University of Cape Town. He has co-founded social enterprise initiatives and is passionate about education, entrepreneurship, and sustainable economic opportunity.
Business strategist, marketing expert, and author with international consulting experience across South Africa, Australia, the UK, Kenya, and Zambia. Dianne has led marketing agencies, mentored executive teams, and served in leadership roles across business, education, and community organisations.
Entrepreneur, former school principal, and community leader with qualifications in Management, Economics, and Education. Founder of Love Cities NPC, Love uMngeni NPC, and former founder of Oasis Preparatory School. Matt leads the vision and strategy behind the movement, driving collaboration and positive community transformation.
uMngeni Local Municipality is a public institution in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, responsible for local governance and service delivery within the uMgungundlovu District. Named after the uMngeni River, the municipality plays a key role in supporting sustainable development, community wellbeing, and collaborative local economic growth.
FNB is one of South Africa’s leading financial institutions, offering innovative banking solutions for individuals, businesses, and communities. Through its commitment to entrepreneurship, financial inclusion, and social impact initiatives, FNB actively supports the growth of sustainable businesses and community development across the country.
The ABCD Institute is a global leader in asset-based community development, focused on strengthening communities by identifying and mobilising existing local strengths and resources. It equips practitioners and organisations worldwide to build sustainable, community-led development from within.
Daily Maverick is an independent South African news and analysis platform known for its investigative journalism, in-depth reporting, and commitment to public interest storytelling. It plays a key role in promoting transparency, accountability, and informed civic engagement.
Inscape is a leading higher education institution in South Africa, specialising in design, innovation, and creative education. It equips students with future-focused skills across disciplines such as design, architecture, and business innovation, fostering creative problem-solving for real-world impact.
Across South Africa, our small towns and large cities are all grappling with the stark reality of neglect, mismanagement, and sabotage. Our dream of a ‘rainbow nation’, brimming with opportunity, economic inclusion, ubuntu has been shipwrecked by empty promises from government, business confidence is at an all-time low with many battling to keep their doors open, service delivery is waning and the heartache of continually saying goodbye to family and friends who are leaving for ‘greener pastures’ in other countries weighs heavy on hearts. This is often reflected in the media, with news of further corruption in our community leadership dominating headlines, continual gripes about the state of failing infrastructure and often angry letters written to no one in particular but shared by many as the common negative sentiments of our communities.
‘Little did I know, but I too had fallen prey to the power of negativity, projecting my own pain, self-limiting beliefs and disempowered thinking onto the community. My complaints became the only way of appeasing my conscience, keeping me trapped in a destructive cycle of powerlessness. My conscience would often remind me when witnessing the broken state of our town, that ‘something could be done to change things’. I didn’t want to hear it. I felt inadequate, scared and overwhelmed. The job looked too big, the challenges too numerous and my scarce resources didn’t match the task at hand’ remarks our Founder, Matt Hogarty.
‘This all changed one Saturday morning as I was driving around town. It was a normal Saturday, and I was on a mission to get through our weekly shopping list at the local grocer as quickly as possible. Travelling with my wife and kids into the centre of town took all of five minutes, but as I entered this Saturday my usual habits of complaining were at an all-time high. Verges that looked like forests with overgrown grass, waste colouring the pavements and what was left of the roads after potholes had grown to the size of bunkers, became the target of my negativity. I could have earned a Ph.D. in negativity during those years, if there was such a thing, as I looking at the bleak possibilities of change that lay ahead of me. As I turned towards our destination, navigating the chaos caused by broken streetlights and trying to avoid a head-on collision as an approaching vehicle veered into my lane to miss one of the many potholes, there was a moment that changed everything.
My five-year-old daughter who was calmly sitting on the back seat while I was ranting and raving quietly waited for her moment to do what only children can do, and pierce through the quagmire of our fortified thinking to ask a simple question that changed everything:
‘Dad, why are you always complaining? Why don’t you do something to change it?’
If that wasn’t enough, this question was quickly followed up with a very graceful response from my wife, sitting beside me in the passenger seat – ‘Yes – do something about it?’
I had suddenly been exposed. The realization that I had given into the narrative that I was powerless to bring any positive change, or the notion that its someone else’s job to change the state of our towns and cities in this beautiful Nation called South Africa, suddenly could not be ignored.’
This was the starting point of a revolution in thinking that resulted in the birth of a movement to bring people together to change their communities. Launched in Howick, Kwa Zulu Natal during September 2015, this movement has become a catalyst for change. Sparked by collective action, public-private partnerships and a will to ‘be the change we want to see’, the story continues as the Love Cities network invites you to become the builder, restorer, and uniter to make your community great again. Let’s defy the critics and shape the future of this beautiful land.
