South Africa takes road to urban renewal

Urban renewal and inner city regeneration have become serious business for the South African government which has invested in several structures to stem the tide of decline in its nine major cities.

Fighting "crime and grime" through, inter alia, the establishment of close circuit TV-systems in CBD areas, increasing the level of visible policing, maintaining 24-hour cleansing services, establishing formal business improvement districts, etc. are part of our urban renewal drive, says Andrew Boraine, chairperson of the South African Cities Network (SACN), the coordinating organisation between South Africa's nine main cities.

The members of the Cities Network are Buffalo City (East London); Cape Town; Ekurhuleni (East Rand); eThekwini (Durban); Johannesburg; Mangaung (Bloemfontein); Msunduzi (Pietermaritzburg); Nelson Mandela (Port Elizabeth) and Tshwane (Pretoria).

"The South African Cities Network is an information and knowledge-sharing network linking South Africa's nine largest cities together with the goal of promoting good governance and management of South African cities, particularly in the context of global economic integration," says Boraine, who is soon to take up the position of CEO with the Cape Town Partnership.

Establishing benchmark indicators by which a city's performance could be measured forms an important part of urban renewal and these were developed as far back as 2001 in the case of Johannesburg.

According to Neil Fraser, executive director of the Central Johannesburg Partnership (CJP), this still constitutes a low base and displays areas of continuing weakness.

Nevertheless, the main indicators used by the CJP are attendance at various inner city entertainment venues, such as sport venues, theatres, and museums; specific building activity in terms of plans approved, work completed and vacancy rates.

Incentives announced by Trevor Manuel, Finance Minister, in the annual budget earlier this year, are bound to accelerate spending by property owners and investors on upgrades, refurbishments and new developments in CBDs.

These include a 20 per cent straight-line depreciation allowance over a five-year period while construction of new buildings will receive a 20 per cent write-off in the first year and five per cent a year for a further 16 years.

Positive feedback from the two main players, Cape Town and Johannesburg, already points to a possible turn-around situation in both these cities. A report from the Cape Town Partnership claims that this city has 'bucked the trend', boasting the lowest crime rate since the mid-1990s, a number of luxury apartment conversions in the heart of the city, and the retail vacancy dropping from 200 empty shops to 65 in less than a year.

The Johannesburg Development Agency (JDA) reports a dramatic increase in building activity, a stabilisation of nominal rentals, and a marked increase in people frequenting public venues in the city centre.

Braamfontein, the major business and entertainment district of central Johannesburg, is also set for a huge revamp with a Dh100 million development project which will be part of this new 'Corporate Precinct'.

Claims that vacancy rates have already stabilised in the Johannesburg CBD are questioned by independent property analysts Rode & Associates. They point out that many of the office occupants are small, entrepreneurial-type companies which carry a high rate of failure leaving little room for improvement in office vacancies.