Response to the draft urban strategy document
- South Africa’s cities are the engine rooms of the national economy. The future of the nation depends upon them being productive and properly focused within the context of global competition.
- South Africa has a number of large metropolitan areas, many intermediate cities and hundreds of towns spread throughout the countryside.
- The state of the cities and their prospects for providing effective environments for future investment and growth should concern the country’s economic policy-makers.
- The draft urban strategy document is an interesting and well-written exposition of the concept of urban development, but it is not yet a strategy document. The document fails to identify clear priorities for action for the government.
- The top priority of urban development must be the creation of wealth and jobs as fast and in as great a number as possible. An effective and realistic urban strategy has to deal with the reality of unemployment.
