Ivan Turok was only 10 when his family left South Africa but he will never forget the relentless persecution that drove them out. His parents were involved in the struggle against apartheid and his father, who had been under house arrest, faced a long prison sentence.

“It was very frightening,” he said. “We used to get woken up in the middle of the night by police — sometimes with dogs — trying to find [political] material.”

Compelled by the intimidation that he experienced as a child, the Professor of Urban Economic Development at the University of Glasgow is now ready to make his own contribution to the country of his birth.

Professor Turok is returning to South Africa to take an 18-month secondment at the University of Cape Town, where he will help to establish a multidisciplinary centre to improve African cities. Its priority will be to tackle the appalling conditions in the notorious townships of South Africa.

Formed on the outskirts of cities during the apartheid era to segregate blacks from whites, townships are a volatile mix of overcrowding, unemployment and slum housing. They are mainly responsible for South Africa's reputation as one of the most violent countries in the world, with more than 50 people killed every day.

“The sheer pressure on space means that sewerage systems are overcome; fires spread from shack to shack and people living cheek-to-jowl become involved in power struggles. Townships are the real problem areas,” Professor Turok said.

“Under apartheid townships were not a priority so local authorities do not have a lot of expertise in upgrading them. It is not always money that is the issue in such places — it is the technical know-how.”

After more than 20 years of studying the worst-off communities in Glasgow, the academic, who has advised governments as well as the UN and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, hopes to adapt policies from his adopted home. Providing jobs and training “like in the UK” is one common solution, as is building better housing.

“The danger is that you think you have a lot of answers when you don't,” he said. “You have to have a mindset which is openness to the local situation; a willingness to learn; not going in there thinking you know the answers.”

One of the wider problems in Africa, he said, was that native governments and international aid agencies overlooked urban poverty in favour of focusing on rural deprivation.

“These cities are growing very quickly because of migration from the countryside so there is a huge challenge in keeping up without health risks. The main challenges are to do with basic survival: infrastructure, sanitation, running water, basic housing,” said the professor, who has an MSc in town planning from Cardiff University.

Other challenges include making cities sustainable by developing them close to centres of employment, schools and hospitals.

Professor Turok described his secondment to Cape Town as a personal journey. When his family left the country they lived in Kenya and Tanzania for three years before moving to Britain as refugees. They became British citizens six years later.

His parents returned after the fall of apartheid in 1992 to become MPs and his father, Ben Turok, 81, is one of the leading — and oldest — parliamentarians in South Africa.

One of his two brothers, Neil, Professor of Theoretical Physics at Cambridge, has established a science centre at Muizenberg, near Cape Town. Now, he said, it was his own turn “to put something back in”.

Despite his commitment to helping South Africa, Professor Turok, a father of four, has reservations about his trip. He fears for the safety of his family — his two youngest daughters will be accompanying him and his wife — because of the high crime rates. He is also concerned about political stability.

Thabo Mbeki, the South African President, is garded by many as losing his grip on power and Professor Turok does not like his potential successor, Jacob Zuma, the former deputy president.

“South Africa is not a honeymoon, and one has some nervousness in going, but you have to get out of your comfort zone. It is also important to remember we are living in an interdependent world. If we don't deal with poverty in these countries they can come back and bite us. The Glasgow airport attacks and 9/11 are not unrelated to poverty,” he said.

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