Metro hosts urban regeneration conference

Despite the considerable public investment into townships and informal settlements, most South African cities are making very little progress in achieving either livability or economic vitality.

This lack of progress can partially be traced back to limited spatial, economic and design intelligence in most urban programmes.

With this in mind, the Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality (EMM) hosted an International Transformative Urban Regeneration Conference recently, at the Germiston Civic Centre.

The conference sought to find innovative solutions to the urban regeneration challenges the city faces – including the 119 informal settlements that exist in Ekurhuleni, nine decaying urban centres and townships built on the peripheries of economic hubs.

“The city is also faced with limited dynamic connectivity between places of work and settlement, or between the wealthy and poor parts of the city,” said Ekurhuleni’s executive mayor, Clr Mondli Gungubele.

“Inefficient and limited connectivity dampens economic opportunity and vitality.”

Clr Gungubele went on to highlight the realities of the city’s 28 percent unemployment rate and low skills base, and how these factors lead to 30 percent of residents living in poverty.

“This conference must come out with solutions and tell us how we are going to create more jobs for our people, ensure that they have the necessary skills to do these jobs and how urban regeneration is going to better their lives,” he said.

In heeding this call, over 100 delegates began with discussions on how best to use public funds to create transformative neighbourhoods.

Mr Alejandro Echeverri, the former Director of Urban Projects in Medellín, Columbia, shared his insights on urban acupuncture.

This approach involves the strategic insertion of public and economic infrastructural elements in communities, which will act as a catalyst to stabilise and revitalise neighbourhoods which have been caught up in cycles of insecurity, crime and mal-development.

Discussions on this topic explored how South Africa can reconsider its own approach to informal settlements and townships.

Architect and urban planner, Ms Maria Diniz, will utilise an initiative implemented in São Paulo, Brazil, as a case study for the land-use, transport and fiscal strategies topic.

She will look into how they have utilised Certificate of Additional Construction Potential (CEPAC) bonds as a tool with which to drive greater urban densification and integration.

The last topic of the day was presented by Mr Hans Thoolen, the project manager for the twinning agreement between the EMM and the Breda municipality, in the Netherlands.

He delved into the topical matter of social housing, from the perspective of the city of Breda.

This Dutch context offers an important reference point for what a “mature social housing institutional system” involves.