Sustainable Development News South Africa

Developing world class African cities

Aurecon, in partnership with PwC and the South African Local Government Association (SALGA) officially launched the Our African City dialogue at the Institute of Municipal Engineering of Southern Africa conference in Cape Town on 28 October.
Developing world class African cities
© HONGQI ZHANG – 123RF.com

Lulu Gwagwa, chair of the Aurecon RSA board, says that in pursuit of being future ready, Aurecon with its partners, commits to being at the forefront of shaping Africa's destiny through transformation, innovation and advancing the African agenda.

According to Abbas Jamie, Aurecon's market director for government and transport, Our African City is a dialogue on inclusive transformation that intends to craft a vision of what future African cities should look like.

"We believe that the private sector needs to partner with and support local government in its role of developing world class African cities. We have thus initiated this dialogue with the intention of aligning the private sector with the Integrated Urban Development Framework (IUDF) document that will shortly be released by the Department of Cooperative Government and Traditional Affairs (COGTA)."

Managing urbanisation

Dr Gwen Ramokgopa, Aurecon's ambassador for the Our African City initiative, delivered the keynote address. "It is a dialogue that is initiated, developed and owned by Africa with the intention of fostering a shared understanding across government and society about how best to manage urbanisation. Through this dialogue we can make a significant contribution to achieving the goals of economic development, job creation and improved living conditions for all of our people and transforming our cities."

"Globally, there's a great deal of innovation surrounding futuristic city planning. While many of these concepts, technologies and ideas are novel and relevant, they aren't always implemented appropriately in Africa. It's time that Africa takes ownership for developing, planning and creating the cities that meet the needs of Africans today and in the future," says Jamie.

Africa's cities continue to grow at an unprecedented rate and the UN has estimated that the nearly 80% urbanisation rate expected by 2050 will see 1.26 billion people living in African cities - more than the entire population of the continent today. Unfortunately, urbanisation continues to lead to informal settlements and unplanned urban sprawl. Historic segregation in countries like South Africa has become more difficult to reverse and spatial patterns that create lack of access to services and opportunities further entrenches poverty, unemployment and inequality.

Societies operate differently

"We need to develop a framework for what a future African city should be from an African perspective. A future based on African ideals, African culture and African traditions. Our societies operate differently and we use public spaces differently. The Our African City dialogue is about understanding what our citizens want to see and experience in their cities. Understanding the needs of our people will help us create truly African cities," says Jamie.

While the dialogue is being launched in South Africa, the vision is to expand the dialogue into African countries in order to create cities that enhance the lives of the cities' residents.

Dion Shango, PwC's CEO Southern Africa, says that when it comes to urban development, different disciplines operate in silos. "This problem is not unique to Africa, it's a challenge that is experienced globally. We need to see beyond our silo if we want to achieve effective collaboration. Whether you're introducing new technologies or planning infrastructure projects, everyone needs to be involved. It seems like a simplistic solution, but this type of inclusive collaboration is often difficult to achieve."

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