{"id":823585,"date":"2025-05-09T10:03:39","date_gmt":"2025-05-09T08:03:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=823585"},"modified":"2025-05-09T10:07:17","modified_gmt":"2025-05-09T08:07:17","slug":"this-is-the-smart-city-johannesburg-mayor-dada-morero-promotes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/823585\/this-is-the-smart-city-johannesburg-mayor-dada-morero-promotes\/","title":{"rendered":"This is the smart city Johannesburg mayor Dada Morero promotes"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The City of Johannesburg executive mayor, Dada Morero, promoted the Lanseria Smart City, which remains only shacks and empty veld years after it should have been a vibrant new city.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For years, the government told citizens that the Lanseria Smart City would offer a new way of living for 350,000 to 500,000 South Africans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Initially known as Cradle City, the Lanseria Smart City had its origins in 2007 and was set to be the first South African city built around an airport.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It promised inhabitants the luxuries of time, security, and sustainability, and the project started to gain traction with government support.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Crosspoint and the Gauteng Department of Human Settlements planned to implement the Lanseria Airport City Mega Project over ten years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Crosspoint has also partnered with the Public Investment Corporation (PIC) to develop the 90-hectare Lanseria Business District as part of the project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Lanseria Smart City gained significant prominence after President Cyril Ramaphosa promoted it in his 2020 State of the Nation Address.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cA new smart city is taking shape in Lanseria, which 350,000 to 500,000 people will call home within the next decade,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A year later, he stated that the Lanseria Smart City, the first new city to be built in democratic South Africa, is now a reality in the making.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In November 2020, the Greater Lanseria Growth Node master plan was released with lofty promises and ideals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was a joint initiative of the Presidency, the Office of the Gauteng Premier, the City of Tshwane, the City of Johannesburg, and Mogale City.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Lanseria Smart City was promoted as the first post-apartheid city in South Africa, based on best practices in urban sustainability and principles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt is to be inclusive of the broadly defined South African socio-economic spectrum and must stimulate a vibrant, mixed urban economy,\u201d the master plan stated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, just like Ramaphosa\u2019s other promises of bullet trains and new, very little has happened over the last five years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

BusinessTech visited the area where the Lanseria Smart City will be built, and we did not see any infrastructure development.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Apart from the Lanseria International airport, we saw large stretches of open land and growing informal settlements.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were numerous shacks in the area, which may pose problems when it comes to developing the land.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Johannesburg mayor Dada Morero promotes the Lanseria Smart City<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Despite the dismal failure of developing the Lanseria Smart City over the past five years, Johannesburg Mayor Dada Morero continued to promote it as a significant development.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He said the Lanseria Smart City Programme was a significant catalytic project that would grow the economy of Johannesburg.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cProjects within Lanseria must be supported. The City\u2019s commitment and investment in the Northern-Farms Wastewater Treatment Plant is a game-changer,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis initiative is a cornerstone in the city’s infrastructure development, showcasing a commitment to sustainability and inclusive growth.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The City of Johannesburg has committed to contributing over R628 million to leverage and unlock the potential of the R4 Billion Northern-Farms Wastewater Treatment Plant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis substantial financial injection demonstrates the City’s dedication to enhancing its wastewater management capabilities,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He said this was important to ensure the successful implementation of the Lanseria Smart City and address the pressing infrastructure needs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He said additional support and guarantees for the Wastewater Treatment Works project needed to be established.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis will not only facilitate the timely completion of essential infrastructure but also bolster the overall development goals of the Lanseria Smart City initiative,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, Outa chief executive, Wayne Duvenage, said people have been hearing<\/a> about the Lanseria Smart City for eight or nine years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNothing has happened other than a private intervention seen in the Northern-Farms Wastewater Treatment Plant,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He added that politicians like Morero like to talk about grandiose plans of what they will do instead of what is currently happening.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

State of the Nation host Mike Sham added that the City of Johannesburg could not even get the traffic lights to work in the Lanseria area.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What the Lanseria Smart City looks like today<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

BusinessTech visited the site<\/a> where the Lanseria Smart City is set to be constructed. Here is what it looks like today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The City of Johannesburg executive mayor, Dada Morero, promoted the Lanseria Smart City, which remains only shacks and empty veld years after it should have been a vibrant new city.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":823586,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[20394,21546,20266,22204],"class_list":["post-823585","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government","tag-dada-morero","tag-lanseria-smart-city","tag-president-cyril-ramaphosa","tag-public-investment-corporation-pic"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/823585","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=823585"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/823585\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":823598,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/823585\/revisions\/823598"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/823586"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=823585"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=823585"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=823585"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}