Ekurhuleni spokesperson Sam Modiba, explains that Ekurhuleni is often the first port of call for many rural people moving into Gauteng in search of employment.
“The movement creates an increased demand for housing in the area and this demand, coupled with limited employment opportunities and massive service delivery needs, presents a number of formidable challenges,” says Modiba.
The conference, thus, sought to find innovative solutions to the urban regeneration challenges that the city faces – including the 119 informal settlements that exist in Ekurhuleni, nine decaying urban centres and townships built on the peripheries of economic hubs.
According to Morena Letsosa, acting head of the City Planning Department, the aim of the conference was to provide a platform where people can learn about cutting-edge urban regeneration policies.
He explained how these policies could contribute to dramatically changing the quality of life in the poor urban areas.
“Through this conference, those in attendance got the opportunity to interact and learn from some of the world’s leading thinkers and practitioners about how to go about successfully transforming urban areas,” says Letsosa.
He believes that the opportunity will be particularly beneficial for Ekurhuleni, given the challenges the city faces.
Conference chairperson, Prof Edgar Pieterse, who is currently the director of the African Centre for Cities and holder of the DST/NRF South African Research Chair in Urban Policy, says the majority of South African cities are making very little progress in achieving either liveability or economic vitality.
This, despite the considerable public investments into townships and informal settlements.
The first two days focussed on the conference’s five themes with the last day as a closed class in Institutional Design and Urban Regeneration.
During the first day of the conference, Ekurhuleni mayor, Cllr Mondli Gungubele, said: “The city is also faced with limited dynamic connectivity between places of work and settlement, or between the wealthy and poor parts of the city. Inefficient and limited connectivity dampens economic opportunity and vitality.”
Gungubele went on to highlight the realities of the city’s 28 per cent unemployment rate and low skills base, and how these factors lead to 30 per cent of residents living in poverty.
“This conference must come out with solutions and tell us how we are going to create more jobs for our people, ensure that they have the necessary skill to do these jobs and how urban regeneration is going to better their lives.”
In heeding this call, over a hundred delegates began with discussions on how best to use public funds to create transformative neighbourhoods. Alejandro Echeverri, former director of Urban Projects in Medellín in Columbia, shared his insights on urban acupuncture.
This approach involves the strategic insertion of public and economic infrastructural elements in communities, which will act as a catalyst to stabilise and revitalise neighbourhoods which have been caught up in cycles of insecurity, crime and mal-development.
Discussions on this topic explored how South Africa can reconsider its own approach to informal settlements and townships.
