Gauteng City-Region Observatory (GCRO)

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Author: search.filters.author.Mosiane, NgakaHas files: Yes

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    Spatial trends in Gauteng
    (Gauteng City-Region Observatory, 2021-12-15) Ballard, Richard; Mosiane, Ngaka; Hamman, Christian
    As many studies on urban transformation in South Africa have recognised, there is a difference between the ideals of spatial transformation and the ongoing production of space by many kinds of actors who are responding to a wide variety of opportunities and limits. While it might be possible to name post-apartheid urban ideals, unfolding spatial transformations in the democratic era underscore the disbursed nature of the energies producing urban space, and the need to understand and work with these energies as we find them in directing spatial transformation. GCRO's 19th Occasional Paper examines six spatial trends that have shaped Gauteng over the last three decades: Trend 1: From 1990 to 2000, an average of 36 km2 was converted from non-urban land use to urban land use in Gauteng each year. From 2000 to 2010, this decreased to 22 km2 a year, and from 2010 to 2020, it increased slightly to 25 km2 a year. Four-fifths of this growth of urban land cover was in the form of residential land use, most of which was formal. Trend 2: Alongside processes that extend the amount of land being used for urban land use, there is intensifying use of existing urban land. These processes of densification have concentrated half of the province’s residents on just 2% of the province’s land. Trend 3: The number of residential buildings in Gauteng has increased from 2.1 million in 2001 to 3.4 million in 2016. When mapped, new building growth is most prominent in townships where there has been a growth by more than 1 000 new structures per square kilometre in some places. One of the drivers of this growth is the ongoing increase in backyard dwellings. Trend 4: Ongoing production of residential buildings perpetuates, to a large extent, the broad affordability gradient that emerged during the city-region’s segregated history. Using two different types of residential morphology – gated communities and government-provided human settlements – we show that the production of different kinds of residential buildings, catering to divergent income levels, occurs in different parts of the city-region. Trend 5: Although there has been some racial desegregation, particularly in residential areas once set aside for white people, the city-region continues to show socio-economic segregation. An analysis of segregation shows the way in which middle-class suburbs are racially integrated but not diversified by income. Meanwhile, the more affordable nature of accommodation in townships continues to restrict working class populations to such spaces. Trend 6: The location of commercial and industrial buildings suggests an ongoing disjuncture between the largest residential population concentrations and many economic zones. This ‘spatial mismatch’ creates the need for people to commute long distances every day to work or to look for work. However, commercial and industrial buildings are also developing in and near townships.
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    Economic and commuting connections in the northern GCR
    (Gauteng City-Region Obervatory, 2022-02-28) Mosiane, Ngaka; Murray, Jennifer
    This Map of the Month illustrates some of the ways through which the core areas of the Gauteng City-Region (GCR) are interconnected with their peripheries, including those that are outside the Gauteng Province, but are within commuting distance. The connections are drawn as straight lines from the start to end points, representing some of the regional flows of goods, services, and people (particularly workers). These flows signify disparate types of relationships between the city region peripheries and core areas, involving the transporting of mining supplies from Gauteng to Rustenburg mining operations. They also indicate relationships of interdependence, including daily commutes from northern Tshwane and former KwaNdebele to the City of Tshwane. It suggests that railway lines, highways, and roads are among the government's most important development interventions. Ordinary people themselves turn those facilities into resources to cope with, rework, or even overcome their marginality. The resultant large-scale practices and spaces of mobility overcome the divide between the core and periphery.
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    Spatial trends in Gauteng
    (Gauteng City-Region Observatory, 2021-12-01) Ballard, Richard; Hamman, Christian; Mosiane, Ngaka
    This Occasional Paper considers six spatial trends in Gauteng. Notwithstanding intentions by the state to direct spatial transformation for the better, these trends are the physical manifestation, for better or worse, of a remarkable variety of actors responding to a wide variety of opportunities, incentives and disincentives. While it might be possible to name post-apartheid urban ideals, these six trends underscore the disbursed nature of energies that are producing urban space, and the need to understand and work with these energies as we find them in directing spatial transformation.
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    Distribution of population vs economic activity
    (Gauteng City-Region Obervatory, 2021-08-31) Mosiane, Ngaka; Murray, Jennifer
    The location of population in relation to economic activity in the Gauteng City-Region (GCR) has been a subject of considerable interest from a number of researchers and institutions. This Map of the Month contributes to that body of work, highlighting a misalignment between where people live and where Gross Value Add (GVA) typically associated with urban development occurs. The map shows every ‘mesozone’ – equally sized polygons drawn by the Centre for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) – across the extended Gauteng City Region, using a radius of 175km from the centre of Johannesburg. The value of each mesozone is calculated by subtracting its share of the whole region’s population from its share of selected urban economic sectors. In green mesozones, the share of urban economic activity exceeds the share of population, while in red or orange mesozones, the share of population exceeds the share of the urban economy. The map draws attention to the edges of Gauteng’s metropolitan areas as sites with larger population shares than that of the economy (e.g. the red and orange shaded ‘mesozones’ in Soweto, Soshanguve, and KwaMhlanga). The opposite is true for the core of the GCR, which is characterised by high urban economic agglomeration compared to the people living there (e.g. the green shaded mesozones around Johannesburg and Pretoria).