the gauteng spatial development framework - Gauteng Online

development framework around which policy, infrastructural investment, economic andsocial programmes, urban management, public transport and various subsidies may beharmonised.• increasing the intensity of urban form and the complexity of mixed-use developmentwith a view to restricting, as far as possible, the options to extend the present footprintof the province's urban spread; andIt is essential to have a robust development framework to cope with variable and nonprescriptivegrowth. The extent and nature of urban growth is a particular challenge formoving into an uncertain urban future, particularly in an urban context, when the prognosisfor the Gauteng City Region (GCR) is that it is likely to be one of the significant three orfour megacities of Africa. Whether this growth, as some projections suggest over a 40- to50-year time horizon, takes Gauteng's population to of the order of 30 million people (SaoPaolo and Santos as a conurbation is now approaching 28 million people), or 15 to 20million, the fact of the matter remains that Gauteng's population is already 11.5 millionpeople, thus an emerging megacity, and there is a need to restructure Gauteng's urbansystem accordingly. This means focusing on key structural issues in achieving an urbansystem that is complex in its nature and make-up and sustainable in its robustness.The GCR aims to develop as a significant emerging conurbation based on sustainableprinciples:• promoting a democratic urban order in terms of access to opportunity for all.In achieving these, the GCR will become more nationally and globally competitive and growa sustainable urban economy that supports quality of life and inclusion for all its citizens.At present, the GCR does not perform well in respect of these sustainability principles andit is noted that things have become worse in that:• the space economy and correction of the 'apartheid city' has not been addressedvigorously enough; instead it is being reinforced;• Gauteng's economy is visibly divided between the first and second economy, thelatter largely characterized as informal, marginalised, unskilled, unemployed andunemployable;• significantly reducing reliance on private mobility in favour of safe, convenient andaffordable public transport and non-motorised transport;• significantly reducing present rates of non-renewable energy usage;• income inequality in Gauteng is higher than in the rest of South Africa;• Gauteng's Gini coefficient (measure of inequality) is growing, indicating that the richare getting richer and the poor are getting poorer; and• reducing the rates of energy expended in the manufacture of goods, the deliveryof these goods to the market and the importation of goods;• the rising level of unemployment (above 20%) is largely structural in nature, meaningthat the unemployed struggle to adjust to changes in wage rates and economic activity.SECTION 1: INTRODUCTION• integrating open space systems into the city region and providing sustainable ecosystems, Clearly, there is a need to transform the very structure of the GCR and project strongurban agriculture and quality of life as a fundamental of the province'sleadership at provincial level in order to direct metropolitan, district and local municipalitiesdevelopment patterns;in achieving vital transformations.1. Motherhood-and-apple-pie' is an idiom referring to general statements of broad intent but lacking in any real content and representing sentiment without cogent directive.03GAUTENG SPATIAL DEVELOPMENT FRAMEWORK 2011GAUTENG GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT AGENCY