key facts
- The Gauteng city-region, with a population of 11.2 million inhabitants (22% of the national population), encompasses a series of connected cities, including Johannesburg and the national capital of Tshwane (formerly named Pretoria), that function as a single, integrated region.
- Population is growing rapidly, especially from in-migration: 3.2 million residents were added to the Gauteng city-region between 1995 and 2009. Compared to OECD metro-regions, the Gauteng city-region features the highest growth rate, growing at more than 2.7% annually between 1997 and 2007, nearly three times as fast as the OECD metro-region average (0.96%).
- The Gauteng city-region accounts for 34% of South Africa’s GDP, 11% of Africa’s GDP, 52% of the share of national R&D (2008-2009), and 63% of national trade.
- Key challenges include high unemployment (26.9%), HIV (12%), and low life expectancy (51 years).
key policy issues
- How to balance the priorities of expanding infrastructure with productivity growth and job creation
- The links between spatial integration, economic opportunity and reducing racial and class inequalities
- Leveraging mass transit to stimulate connectivity, mobility, and inclusion
- The governance advantages and disadvantages of a city-region approach
recommendations
- Improving education and apprenticeship programmes: upgrade apprenticeship training, improve the relevance of training in public institutions, and spearhead a campaign to attract and retain teachers.
- Increasing the supply of modest cost housing: facilitate the construction of more affordable homes; incubate a larger non-profit housing development community; and increase mixed-cost developments.
- Improving mobility by enhanced transportation-oriented development and growth management: develop mechanisms to encourage drivers to switch to public transport; support broader experimentation with transit-oriented development including incentives for developers.
- Improving productivity growth: expanding tertiary and vocational education; enhancing technological capacity of firms; enhancing linkages between government and the academy.
- Expanding Gauteng’s green growth: place Gauteng city-region in the pole position to create new sectors in renewable energy and clean tech in Africa and beyond; expand solar energy provision; leverage the green economy as a basis for regional export.
- Enhancing city-region transportation: ensure inter-operability between all public transit fare systems in the city-region and utilise the Gautrain system as a platform for cooperation in Gauteng
- Enlarge city-region environmental policy-making: enlarge intermunicipal co-operation on waste collection and disposal, develop a metropolitan approach to climate change action planning, and deepen metropolitan cooperation on environmental data collection and management.
FURTHER READING
For more information about urban policy at the OECD please visit www.oecd.org/regional/regional-policy/urbandevelopment.htm.