Rural settlements must be transformed to counter urban migration

“No matter how much we redesign and revamp our cities, they were not designed to take such large inflows,” the Minister said.

The Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta), Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, says rural settlements must be transformed in order to counter urban migration trends.

"No matter how much we redesign and revamp our cities, they were not designed to take such large inflows," the Minister said.

Speaking at the recent Human Settlements Indaba in Gauteng, the Minister said the concentration of industrial and private sector investments in areas that are already privileged has led to low local economic growth in rural and township areas.

"Our settlements remain unresponsive to the aspirations of our people and are largely based on apartheid spatial planning patterns.

"Our cities are also bursting at the seams with the high rural-urban migration," Dlamini-Zuma said.

The Minister said data gathering and research capabilities must be strengthened in the area of human settlements in order to develop plans that respond accurately to real challenges on the ground.

"In order to institutionalize the District Development Model and address the challenges identified through the pilot process, a five-pronged approach has been approved by the Presidential Coordinating Council.

"The strategy addresses the provision of political leadership and capacity to the districts. To advance this, the President has deployed Ministers and Deputy Ministers as champions to each district and metro," the Minister said.

(With Inputs from South African Government Press Release)