by Kenneth Chikanga
The Johannesburg city council has entered the second stage of a multimillion rand development project to transform large tracts of idle farmland in Soweto into modern planned communities integrating housing, business and civic facilities.
On completion, Soweto will have 30 new exclusive extensions of mansions and villas, 1 500 "train shops" will be pulled down and vacant farmland revitalised into a self-sustaining regional economy for the township's estimated 1 million residents.
Johannesburg's Property Company property portfolio manager, Mashilo Pitjeng, said on the Johannesburg City Council website this week that the first part of the project involved surveying close to 900ha of idle land, which was still registered as farmland, for residential and commercial use.
"The survey started in October 2003 and is set to run until the 2005/06 financial year. The whole of Soweto needs to be surveyed, but Orlando East and West and Chiawelo Extension are the biggest areas with open spaces which remain unsurveyed," Pitjeng said.
The Greater Soweto Area is easily the largest conglomerate of townships in South Africa, comprising 143 peri-urban extensions, crammed into 153km2 of space.
Although the township has been referred to as a city within a city, the Johannesburg city council admits that land use and development in the township is largely a result of apartheid-era legislation that regulated and controlled development, resulting in distorted land use.
In the survey, the council is seeking to separate the large tracts of mainly agricultural land west of Soweto from along the Klip River and floodplains separating Soweto from Lenasia to the south, across the N12 Potchefstroom highway.
The classification also covers the entire stretch of eastern Soweto, bordering the N1 southern by-pass, the vacant land down the Nasrec hinterland and throughout the mining belt on the Roodepoort border where other large portions of land are encumbered by slimes dams and ugly mine dumps.
Pitjeng said years of research had shown that Soweto's role in the mainstream economy of Gauteng was that of a dormitory town for the Johannesburg central business district (CBD), with 79 percent of its workers working outside Soweto and 84 percent of the township's disposable income being spent outside its borders.
"It is impossible to quantify how much in investments we are talking about because we would be limiting our thinking. But the benefits are multilayered, from an industrial perspective, housing, roads and railways, infrastructure development and the socioeconomic profile for the whole area," he said.
According to the regional spatial development framework document for Soweto, the vast neighbourhood does not have a town centre of its own.
Most Soweto residents do their household shopping at Southgate, Highgate or, for the majority, Johannesburg CBD, but local shopping centres have been developed in Chiawelo, Protea and Eldorado Park, with the largest being Dobsonville Mall.
Pitjeng said several developmental nodes had been identified as strategic opportunity nodes where modern shopping complexes would be built at Ikwezi, Dube, Meadowlands, Eldorado Park, Crossroads and Merafi.
Already construction is going on at the larger centres at Baralink, where a development corridor will link the Chris Hani Baragwanath centre with industria, and at Jabulani and in Kliptown.
For those areas, once parcels of land had been surveyed and proclaimed, massive infrastructure is envisaged as potential investment magnets for land developers.
Pitjeng said the Johannesburg city council was mindful of the legacy of the socioeconomic profile, which means that thousands of Soweto residents rely on spaza shops, which also come in the form of train shops, stalls, booths, barrows or corner shops.
Because of the local business operating in Soweto at present, the area has limited office space.
Conventional office space is available in Jabulani, Eldorado Park, Dube, Dobsonville and Baragwanath, while the existing industrial sites are at Protea Industrial Park, Golden Triangle and Baralink.
While the train shops would not be summarily pulled down, development of modern malls like the R160 million Protea Gardens was in the pipeline.
Protea Gardens is an initiative between Greenwold Property Development and a black economic empowerment company, Roux Property Development, which is led by Soweto resident Roux Shabangu.
Protea Gardens will cater for about 22 000m2 to 25 000m2 of retail space including a mall, all related roads and parking, services and landscaping.
Phase one will consist of an enclosed mall with a gross building area of 19 592m2 and lettable area of 17 000m2. The centre will be anchored by Shoprite Checkers and subanchored by Standard Bank, First National Bank, Absa, People's Bank and fashion outlets like Jet Stores, Nu Shop, Dunns, Pep Stores, Ackermans, Express Stores, Shoe outlets and other regional fashion tenants.
Furniture stores include Furniture City, Morkels, Lubners, Price 'n Pride and OK Bazaars. Speciality stores include Giddies Electrical, a post office, Diskom and Eskom.
The food court is earmarked as the centrepiece, where Kentucky Fried Chicken, Hungry Lion, Steers, Captain Dorego, Fontana Chicken, King Pie and Butterfields Bakery will operate.
Feeder businesses like hair salons, sweet shops, medical rooms and cellphone and hardware shops are expected to move in when the complex is up and running.
Pitjeng said many challenges had to be conquered because the benefits for the project would be multilayered - in housing and addressing squatter camps, provision of social services, road infrastructure, water sanitation, waste management and electricity.
Historically, the unwillingness of apartheid administrations to recognise townships as permanent and integral parts of the city had discouraged home ownership in Soweto, which had discouraged property investment.
"So we hope to see the emergence of a commercial property market where Soweto residents will be able to apply for and get title deeds for their stands. That cannot be done before the land is proclaimed," he said.
According to the 1996 census, Soweto (including Eldorado Park and Nancefield) had 1.02 million residents.
Much of the debate about Soweto's population centres on rural-urban migration trends, which have given birth to at least 27 identified informal settlements in the township.
They range from the largest informal settlement, Doornkop/Thulani, which has 14 500 structures, Ebumnadini and Freedom Park with 4 500 each, Protea South with 3 000 and other prominent ones at Diepkloof, Slovo Park, Chris Hani, Mandela Square, Winnie's Camp and the three Dhlamini camps made up of 1 000 structures each.
A more recent Johannesburg city council survey for the Igoli 2010 programme said Soweto residents numbered between 1.22 million and 1.25 million people.
The pilot project has progressed to the stage where beneficiaries have been identified for hundreds of properties, specific shops registered and the proposed subdivision done.
Soweto is a city rich in history, and much thought has to be applied to linkages between the existing socioeconomic profile and future development plans.
Already hundreds of international tourists are being drawn into township tours to places like the Hector Petersen Memorial, the Nelson Mandela home and museum, the Credo Mutwa village and other cultural and historical places. There has also been a significant rise in bed-and-breakfast establishments, meaning that Soweto in itself is waking up to the potential available in its history and culture.
Pitjeng said by the time the survey was finalised, Soweto would certainly get a rebirth and development boom in line with government efforts to improve the socioeconomic profile of the largest township in South Africa. - - Johannesburg