cities

Figure 7.10: Bad debt per city (2010–2014)
3
2.5
Rand (billions)
2
1.5
1
JHB CPT ETH TSH EKH NMB MAN BUFF MSU
2010 2011 2012 2013 2014
South African cities also have to deal with the high social, financial and environment costs that are the
result of apartheid spatial planning, which produced sprawling, low-density cities characterised by
inefficient land use and distribution, where the “poor are typically located on the urban periphery”
with “little access to housing and services” (FFC, 2011: 170). A recent study on the costs of sprawl in
American cities estimated that the costs of energy use, road accidents, congestion and emissions
amount to US$1-trillion per year (Litman, 2015). This is equal to approximately US$4556 per capita
per year, of which US$2568 is a cost to households and US$1988 is carried by other people, such as
the municipality or insurers.
A South African analysis found that housing and infrastructure costs for households were lower in
peripheral neighbourhoods, encouraging investment decisions that increased urban sprawl (Biermann,
2006). However, at city-scale, sprawl results in significant additional costs, from installing and
maintaining infrastructure for water and sanitation and other municipal services, to ongoing operating
costs associated with providing services, such as waste management and community safety, in a
dispersed geographic area.
Cities can unlock direct savings and reap wider benefits by encouraging a shift from private vehicles
to public transport. The Rea Vaya BRT service in Johannesburg has resulted in an overall saving of
over US$890-million (Gouldson et al., 2015). The key savings are a result of the reduced travel
times and increased road safety, with lower greenhouse gas emissions contributing to about 10%
of the savings.
A better understanding is needed of the systemic cost savings that can be achieved through spatial
transformation, so that a case can be made for assertive spatial transformation policy and programmes
funded through municipal revenue or intergovernmental transfers.
258 State of South African Cities Report 2016