JOHANNESBURG – The South African Cities Network (SACN) will convene the fourth South African Urban Development Conference from March 4 to 5 in the City of Tshwane.
The conference will inform the preparation of the fourth State of South African Cities Report (SOCR) by focusing on the question: “Are cities driving local and national development?”
SACN is an established network of South African cities and partners that encourages the exchange of information, experience and best practices of urban development and city management. Its members are the major cities in South Africa, including City of Tshwane, Johannesburg, Mangaung, Ekurhuleni, Msunduzi, Buffalo City, Nelson Mandela Bay and Ethekwini.
In an exclusive meeting with the Southern COURIER, its CEO Mr Sithole Mbanga talked a lot about the opportunities for local government to contribute towards and drive spatial transformation in South African cities. He said the cities were not designed to cater for the current population and the changes that are happening like climate change.
“We’ve inherited cities that cater for minorities. If you look around you, most transport in the roads are not public. Most cars are driven by individual persons, the majority do not have cars and yet we are utilising scarce resources to focus on the transport needs of the 20 per cent of people who have cars. Though there are mini-bus taxis, they are privately owned and they are not subsidised by the government, despite being the most widely used mode of public transport in our cities” explained CEO Mbanga.
He also clarified the role of public transport and apartheid’s spatial legacy. “In the apartheid days, workers were never thought of as important people of the community. In a mine, workers used to be transported from home to work and vice versa, the same thing is still happening today with mini-bus taxis. Workers still spend a lot of time commuting from home to work. This inefficiency reduces productivity. That is why we need to reconfigure the current space to cater for the present situation,” he said.
Among other important points he mentioned, he spoke about five key areas that must be looked at:
• Thorough understanding of the urban land issue.
• To develop sustainable human settlements, local government needs to have a plan to purchase land that is strategically located.
• Through integrated transport, need to focus on how to improve mobility and respond to the needs of pedestrians, cyclists, motorists and mass transport (mini-bus taxis, buses, trains and aeroplanes).
• Focus on adaptation of our built environment to respond to climate change and transform cities physically.
• Properly financing the cities to deal with urban pressures is important.
Following the March Urban Conference in Tshwane will be the seventh AfriCities Conference, to be hosted by the City of Johannesburg in December 2015. This is the premier event on local government in Africa and is assembled by the United Cities and Local Government of Africa.
