A regional mall, 3,000-person entertainment precinct, private hospital and 15,000 homes are coming together to create North West Soweto’s bold new destination for shopping, food, events, jobs and everyday life.
After 16 years of planning, false starts, and anticipation, Leratong City is no longer just a concept on a map. It is rising at the gateway to North West Soweto: a R5bn destination built around a regional mall, a 3,000-person entertainment precinct, a private hospital and 15,000 new homes. From 29 October 2026, it is being built to become the place where Soweto and its surrounding communities will shop, eat, gather, celebrate and be seen.
This is not just another mall opening. Leratong City brings retail, live events, restaurants, healthcare, housing, local traders and employment into one new urban node, giving the West Rand a commercial centre with the scale and energy to pull people in throughout the week.
The R5bn bet on North West Soweto
Leratong City anchors what government and developers are calling an 'intelligent urban district', part of the smart-city vision President Cyril Ramaphosa first set out in 2019. On the ground, that means a connected, mixed-use district rather than a stand-alone mall. The mall is being built with flexible store units designed to put big-name retailers and small local traders side by side, while the wider development aims to pull retail, entertainment and daily services into one new hub for the West Rand.
Sixteen years in the making
The idea began in Zimbabwe, where Jason McCormick, MD of McCormick Property Development, first designed a regional mall built around a performance amphitheatre facing its main intersection. That project was shelved when the country’s politics shifted seismically, but the concept survived. It is now returning in two places at once: Leratong City opens first on 29 October 2026, followed weeks later by the original project, Mall of Zimbabwe in Borrowdale, Harare.
Where the mall becomes a stage
At its centre is Levels: a 750-seat covered amphitheatre inside a precinct designed for more than 3,000 people. It faces directly onto the development’s main intersection, making the activity inside visible from the street. Its performance stage carries a 40m² digital screen on a custom sliding-stacking rig that folds away entirely, allowing the stage to face both into the mall and out onto the road. It is built to host festivals, BokTown, soccer derby days, and weddings.
Levels opens onto an 11-restaurant food court with two kids’ play areas inside, plus three more sit-down restaurants and a 300m² kids’ play zone outside. It is a deliberate reversal of the usual mall layout, where the food court often faces the parking lot rather than the street. The first major event is The Leratong City All White Soul Session on Saturday 31 October, two days after the Grand Opening.
A crossroads built for crowds
Leratong City sits in Kagiso, on the R41/R558 crossroads just northwest of Soweto proper, close enough that developers are branding the area North West Soweto. The site connects directly to Soweto, Randfontein, Roodepoort, Krugersdorp and the Johannesburg CBD, giving the mall a regional catchment that extends well beyond Kagiso itself.
Leratong Hospital: the anchor
Leratong Hospital, a provincial hospital directly across the road from the mall site, is one of Kagiso’s most important public facilities. It draws a steady flow of patients, staff and visitors from across the wider area every day, adding to the movement around the node and strengthening the case for retail and services nearby.
Jobs, skills and local momentum
The employment context explains why local participation matters. In the wider area, 43% of residents are employed, 28% are unemployed and 30% are not economically active, according to Stats SA and AfricaEye data. Just over 60% of the population is of working age, making job creation and skills development central to how the project will be judged locally.
The Leratong City construction site is already putting some of that local potential to work. Of the 495 people currently employed on site, 330 are from the local area, while 28 local small businesses have been appointed for services. Students from the area are also gaining hands-on training in engineering and quantity surveying through the project.
A new place to gather
People will not only come for groceries or errands. They will come for the events and restaurants, but also for hospital visits, small traders, school runs and weekend meetups. That mix is what gives Leratong City its real pull.
From 29 October, Leratong City stops being a promise and starts becoming a place: a new stage for North West Soweto, built as much for everyday life as for the big occasions.
