Planned City

Waterval City, Johannesburg

Towards the end of the 20th century, a reaction to the growing crime rates has been gated communities, existing neighborhoods which have been closed off, despite the roads being public property. However an extreme and growing response are the instant cities: privately developed, mix-use, gated territories which contain gated settlements within. These are appearing on the northern part of Johannesburg, shifting and reinforcing the financial center of the Municipality towards the north. The case study of Waterval city is the largest single private property in South Africa, housing 40000 people, it is located along the N1 freeway, and on the edge of the Jukseki river. The territory, previously a privately owned farm acquired in 1935 took advantage that the city council had no clear guidelines for the development of the area, and of the 1998 Security of access restriction Act which allowed for residential gating to change its zonning to residential. Today, to fight the segregation of these developments, the City of Johannesburg developed the 2019 Inclusionary housing policy Act requiring the creation of social housing units inside the complex. As the area was constructed, informal settlements appeared on the East, which were then transformed into the township of Ebony park, and gated communities appeared on the West, closing the gap to Sandton.