The world is urbanising rapidly and, according to the United Nations (UN), 54% of the world’s population live in urban areas, a statistic set to increase to 66% by 2050, Deputy Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs Minister Andries Nel said at the at the second African Capital Cities Sustainability Forum, in Tshwane.

In his address, Nel noted that continuing population growth and urbanisation would increase global population by 2.5-billion people by 2050 and that 90% of this increase would be in Africa and Asia.

“According to the UN, Africa is expected to be the fastest-urbanising region between 2020 to 2050,” he said.

Over 60% of South Africans already lived in urban areas and this number would increase to 71% by 2030.

He added that government needed to guide the management of urban areas and reverse the apartheid spatial injustice legacy.

“Despite progress, unfortunately, most South African cities are still highly spatially fragmented, owing to segregated and class-based colonial planning systems,” Nel stated.

He pointed out that, to facilitate mobility and efficiency in the integration and densification process, land policies, infrastructure investments, and market-based energies required coherent policy frameworks that focused equally on megacities and intermediate and medium-sized cities and towns, with a primary focus on generating inclusivity and social cohesion.

South Africa’s National Development Plan (NDP) states that, by 2030, the country should observe meaningful and measurable progress in reviving rural areas and in creating more functionally integrated, balanced and vibrant urban settlements.

“In pursuit of this vision, South Africa has adopted an Integrated Urban Development Framework (IUDF), which was approved by Cabinet in April,” he noted.

Nel explained that the IUDF provided a roadmap to implement the NDP's vision for spatial transformation – creating liveable, inclusive and resilient towns and cities while reversing the spatial legacy of apartheid.

The framework recognised that the country had different types of cities and towns with different roles and requirements.

“The objective is to transform urban spaces by reducing travel costs and distances, preventing further development of housing in marginal places, increasing urban densities to reduce sprawl, and shifting jobs and investment towards dense peripheral townships,” said Nel.

Also speaking at the forum, Tshwane mayor Kgosientso Ramokgopa said that one of the major challenges South Africa faced when it came to spatial planning was that the fiscus was not able to accommodate the amount of people migrating to urban spaces.

“We have not successfully dealt with apartheid spatial logic – people still travel long distances to get to work and [they] still use motorised forms of transport. We have not been able to expand the necessary infrastructure,” he said.

This had led to acrimonious confrontations such as land invasions. In recent violent clashes in Hammanskraal, people were evicted from three informal settlements and two people were killed during the eviction process.

“The majority of these incidents occur outside the city space. We must find better ways of addressing this across all spheres of government and [we] are making every effort to accommodate people in those areas,” said Ramokgopa.

He added that current global challenges threatened economic growth and development in African cities, especially those related to climate change, global economic slowdown, trade facilitation, connectivity and land degradation caused by mining activities and water shortages.

He further emphasised the importance of implementing sustainability programmes to enable capital cities to realise their role in providing leadership to other local authorities in Africa.