Cultural and Institutional Obstacles to Compact Cities in South Africa

Abstract

Current dynamics The most outstanding characteristics of South African cities are their horizontal sprawl and segregation which have made them into some of the most inefficient and dysfunctional cities in the world (Dewar, 1992; Hattingh and Horn, 1991; Van der Merwe, 1993; Watson, 1994). The horizontal extension of South African cities is enormous. The metropolitan area of Pretoria, for example, houses approximately 1.5 million people on an area of 130,000 hectares, and stretches over roughly 100km from north to south, and 75km from east to west (GPMC, 1998). Although it houses, for example, only a tenth of the population of metropolitan São Paolo, it is more than half the area of São Paolo. In Pretoria, only 45% of the total metropolitan area is built up (CCP, 1998b).

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