SEIZING SOUTH A FRICA’S URBAN OPPORTUNITY - TACKLING URBAN POVERTY AND

This report presents the results of policy analysis and modelling on South Africa, delving deeper into findings summarised in the Coalition’s new Seizing the Urban Opportunity report.5 It aims to inform a new partnership between the Coalition, South Africa’s National Department for Cooperative Governance, the WRI Ross Center and the South African Cities Network to support the implementation of Sou. [...] The third modelling exercise that informed our analysis was by the Marron Institute of Urban Management at New York University, which examined the scale and composition of the conversion of land to urban purposes in each of the six countries in the period 2000–2014. [...] 21 UNLOCKING THE POTENTIAL OF SOUTH AFRICA’S CITIES A key challenge for South Africa is that even before the COVID-19 crisis, the economy was in recession, and the pandemic shrank GDP by 7.5% in 2020.98 In the third quarter, unemployment hit 30.8%, the highest level since the national jobless survey began in 2008.99 In late May 2021, facing a third wave of infections, and with only 1.5% of the pop. [...] This should include subsidised rentals and changes in zoning and in the use of publicly owned land to prioritise the provision of housing close to jobs and other urban opportunities. [...] 7 in National Treasury, 2018, “Managing Urbanisation to Achieve Inclusive Growth: A Review of Trends in South African Urbanisation and Suggestions for Improved Management of Urbanisation.” South Africa’s government has recognised the persistence of this problem, and a revamped approach to implementing the National Development Plan includes, among seven priorities, to “tackle the persistence of apa.