Outgoing Mayor of the City of Johannesburg Herman Mashaba shares some of his memories of Sandton and how he hopes its development will extend throughout the city:
Sandton is widely known as an important tourism, retail, financial and business hub in Johannesburg and in South Africa.
Locations like Nelson Mandela Square, Sandton City, the Sandton Convention Centre and more non-stop construction means many companies left the decaying inner city of Johannesburg and flocked to the area to set up headquarters.
Like all business districts, its continued growth is needed to strengthen our economy.
I remember during my younger days I would take the bus from Hammanskraal to visit my mother in Sandown where she had a job as a domestic worker. This was during the initial days of development in Sandton which has since had a remarkable effect on the surrounding areas and the city as a whole.
The continuous growth of the district is much needed in our country and I would like to see the same enthusiasm from developers to invest in other nodes like Roodepoort, Randburg and Soweto.
It is critical that we reignite development in the inner city. The Johannesburg inner city is full of potential.
