Cities are the engines of growth in the South African economy and metros have to take a wide view of their competitive advantages, in order to optimise this potential. The economy as a whole depends on it. Yet, within metros, there is still significant spatial inequality when it comes to the spatial location of economic opportunities. Townships are often marginalised from the benefits of growth and constrained in their ability to contribute to growth, despite having some of the highest population densities in residence. Such is the case for Soweto. Despite significant private and government investment in the area, Soweto remains underdeveloped and underserviced. It is therefore critical that the City of Johannesburg (CoJ) looks toward a more robust and systemic-level change. To do this, the Soweto Strategic Area Framework (SSAF) advocates high levels of stakeholder engagement and the mainstreaming of gender equality and social inclusion to help adopts a systems-level understanding of Soweto’s economy with all its complexity.
