The metro recently won two coveted awards at the South Africa Planning Institute (SAPI) Awards 2016.
The municipality walked away with the Best Mentorship Programme award for its role in mentoring students of the University of Venda, and the Best Municipal Plan award for the development of the metro’s spatial development framework.
The SAPI awards focus on all municipalities and metros within the Southern African region.
In terms of the mentorship programme, the metro mentored 20 students in 2014, over a five-day period, on the precinct planning exercise for the Dries Niemand and Tembisa Civic nodes.
This exercise was to assist the third year students with their metropolitan planning course in a metropolitan municipality.
“We have taken a step in shaping our future planners and we expanded their practical knowledge on spatial planning related issues.
“They learned how to research and develop precinct plans for the selected two precincts, which were included into their semester marks,” said head of city planning Motubatse Motubatse.
In 2015, also over a five-day period, the city mentored 30 students on the precinct area of the Palm Ridge Court.
This experience was coupled with tours of the metro, OR Tambo Airport and the Gautrain.
The second award, the Best Municipal Plan award, gave confidence to the development of the Metropolitan Spatial Development Framework of the metro and its spatial trajectory as aligned to the GDS.
The Metropolitan Spatial Development Framework (MSDF), approved in 2015, is a planning structuring strategic tool that guides development and investment within the region.
The MSDF introduced and placed emphasis on spatial structuring elements (fixed Urban Edge), nodal developments, corridors and the mining belt all incorporated under sustainable planning, which reduces urban sprawl.
It provides tactics relevant for spatial transformation.
This is emphasised by the integration of the disadvantaged communities into the urban fabrics, through infill developments on vacant land located close to CBDs and industrial areas.
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