the gauteng spatial development framework - Gauteng Online

and the significant amount of RDP housing that has been put into this nascent corridor,more should be promoted regionally to make it live up to a greater potential.The east-west urban corridor from Krugersdorp through Johannesburg (via the West Rand)and on to Boksburg and Benoni (via the East Rand) is in turn extremely strong eastwardsby virtue of its regional and national links to Witbank, Middelburg, Nelspruit and Maputo.On the western extremity of this axis, however, there is little to significantly inform itsextension westwards beyond Krugersdorp.To the extent that this is so (and bearing in mind the relatively weak axis through Potchefstroomto Kimberley), it is noted that the fairly poor economic integration between North WestProvince and Gauteng is cause for regional concern and leaves the south-western sectorof the Gauteng urban region fragile.The east-west regional development axis from Angola, Botswana and Maputo via Rustenburg,Brits, Pretoria, Witbank, Middelburg and Nelspruit (the N4 Corridor) is, by contrast, relativelyrobust although, again, the integration to the east is stronger than that with the North WestProvince.The N3 development axis from Johannesburg to Durban via Heidelberg and Harrismith iseconomically significant and represents a bifurcation of the N1 north-south intra-continentalcorridor at a point between Midrand and Johannesburg. Given the strength of this nationaldevelopment axis, one senses that more performance in the Gauteng urban system couldbe expected of the urban corridor from Johannesburg to Heidelberg.Figure 1-1: Gauteng Province in context of adjacent provincesIn spite of the relatively robust N1 Corridor through Gauteng to Cape Town, one wouldexpect more economic performance in the fairly weak urban corridor from Johannesburgto Vanderbijlpark. Given the importance of Soweto, Eldorado Park, Orange Farm, SebokengNoting the pattern of regional development axes converging on and passing throughGauteng, and how these fundamentally provide the skeleton (or morphological structure)of the wider Gauteng urban system, the inadequacies in this wider system appear to bein the failure of well-balanced, sustainable local economies to form in the south, southwesternand south-eastern sectors of the system. To a slightly lesser extent, the northernand north-western sectors of Tshwane also show inadequacies and these in areas wheresignificant peripheral (and often marginalised) communities exist.SECTION 1: INTRODUCTIONGAUTENG SPATIAL DEVELOPMENT FRAMEWORK 2011GAUTENG GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT AGENCY06