Urbanist Edgar Pieterse sets out three ideas for building South Africa's cities
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Urbanist Edgar Pieterse told The Gathering 2026 that South Africa delivered an ambitious housing programme but failed to build liveable cities, and proposed three ways to change course.
South Africa has delivered one of the most ambitious housing programmes in the world but has failed to build liveable cities, urbanist Edgar Pieterse told The Gathering 2026 in Cape Town on 11 September, in a talk titled “Our Cities are not broken, they're just built wrong”.
Pieterse, director of the African Centre for Cities at the University of Cape Town, said the country has built a lot of infrastructure but has neglected good design, beauty and spatial justice. He said the vision that emerges where informality sits beside formality, and the makeshift alongside the highly regulated, is a uniquely African disposition that South Africa has failed to harness as a source of innovation.
His first proposal is to harness minibus taxis, looking at ways to increase their revenue tenfold so that operators agree to pay taxes and comply with regulations and safety standards. He said taxis could also spearhead a transition to electric vehicles and build a new revenue stream through real estate, envisioning Cape Town's Nyanga station with social housing at the top, informal trading at the front and electric minibuses at the centre.
Second, he called for alternative materials to build infrastructure such as schools and housing. He cited nonCrete, made from alien vegetation cleared off mountains and repurposed into a low-carbon building material he said is more effective than concrete and has better insulation and cooling properties, pointing to the jobs a new value chain could create.
Third, he said the country's creative spaces could be transformed, reimagining the Cape Flats as having a “Waterfront” that would train young people in arts, culture and technology, offer maker spaces and a retail experience, and provide affordable housing on a waterfront. Public-private partnerships could unlock these plans, he said, adding: “We're convinced that we don't need world-class smart cities. What we need are safe, job-rich, green, inspiring neighbourhoods.”