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Jun 26, 2007:
International and local urban planners have spoken about the "fragmented" nature of Johannesburg, calling for more cohesion between its northern and southern suburbs. By Ndaba Dlamini
Joburg still has a long way to go to reduce the social and economic disparities between its communities, a situation that has negatively affected development in the city.
This was said on the last day of a three-day conference on planning and urban management held at the Civic Theatre in Braamfontein from Monday, 18 June to Wednesday, 20 June.
The conference was attended by urban planners from the City, academics from the University of the Witwatersrand and urban planners from countries such as Canada, the USA, Brazil, England and France.
On the first day of the conference, delegates listened to presentations from the international visitors, who told of how cities like Vancouver, Paris and Sao Paulo had handled issues of urban spread and development. On Tuesday, delegates were split into working groups to tour the inner city, Rosebank, the Gautrain stations under construction and the northern fringe of Johannesburg.
Rosebank CID Reporting back on their experiences, most delegates lamented the "fragmented" nature of the city. One working group that toured Rosebank to look at urban management commended the efforts of the northern suburb to establish a city improvement district (CID) to spruce up the area and attract business.
"It is notable that the City is striving to increase its competitiveness on an international level but there should be a connection between the different parts of the city – especially between the northern and the southern suburbs," the group noted. "The impending 2010 Fifa World Cup™ should also be used to promote inclusion to open up connections between the different parts of the city."
The group that looked into Joburg's transport system said a lot of thought had gone into developing the Bus Rapid Transit system, a network of buses that would use special lanes on routes linking townships in the south to northern suburbs and the city centre, and the Gautrain.
"It's obvious that the construction of Gautrain stations will have a positive impact on development in the vicinity as private developers are literally salivating around these station areas."
Land use laws There were too many laws concerning land use, zoning and trading. This negatively affected housing provision for the homeless and appropriate places for trading for informal traders, said the group tasked with looking at informality in the city.
In response, Yondela Silimela, from the City's department of development planning and urban management, said there were 34 000 informal traders in Johannesburg, adding that this was not a distortion of the business sector but a new model.
"Informal trading is not illegal and people have a right to trade in designated areas. People living in informal settlements also have a legal right to apply for housing but they cannot put up houses anywhere they want," she said.
A tour of the northern fringe of the city, including the suburbs of Fourways, Dainfern, Diepsloot and Ruimsig, by the group investigating urban edge recession, revealed challenges that the City had to grapple with in terms of urban planning. The group identified traffic congestion, poor quality of environment, lack of public transport, lack of passive and active open spaces and poor distribution of public facilities as major setbacks to development.
Follow up At the end of the submissions, all delegates could post personal comments about their experiences during the conference. Many felt that the three days were not long enough to cover many aspects of urban planning and development, and it was agreed that a follow-up conference should take place in 2008.
Wrapping up the gathering, the executive director in the department of development planning and urban management, Phillip Harrison, said that organising the conference had cost R700 000 but that "it was money well spent".
"The department needed the fresh flow of ideas and the debates held will hopefully change the way of thinking in the city. We also hope that talks about development of sustainable projects will continue."
In terms of a second session, Harrison said the department was eager to hold another conference next year. "With regard to the contribution by international visitors and academics from Wits, we will look into ways of developing this relationship into a training programme for department staff."
Article courtesy of City of Johannesburg website (www.joburg.org.za).
