GDS 2055
The City of Ekurhuleni’s long-term strategic direction, as unpacked in its Growth and Development Strategy (GDS) 2055, serves as the overarching guiding framework for the City’s shorter-term policies. It aims to create a thriving, inclusive Ekurhuleni of the future.
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he GDS 2055 systematically analyses Ekurhuleni’s history and development challenges, and therefore outlines the desired growth and development trajectory. It seeks to ensure that Ekurhuleni transitions from being a fragmented City to a capable City from 2020 to 2030, and a sustainable City from 2030 to 2055. The GDS 2055 has identified five strategic themes to incrementally measure the success of the City with respect to the above. These are long-term outcomes that have been designed to incrementally measure
ENSURING THE COURSE HOLDS the success of the City in achieving the objectives of the GDS 2055. •R e-urbanise in order to achieve sustainable urban integration •R e-industrialise in order to achieve job creating economic growth •R e-generate in order to achieve environmental wellbeing •R e-mobilise in order to achieve social empowerment •R e-govern in order to achieve effective cooperative governance.
IMPERATIVES GOING FORWARD Re-urbanise: The GDS 2055 proposes that in order to redress the development planning injustices of the past, there must be a scalable and demand-sensitive mix of service delivery packages that facilitate and
enable re-urbanisation that fosters sustainable settlements, reduce carbon emission and the consumption of natural resources, realise an integrated urban form, and decrease the level of dependency on private transport. The urban structure also needs to be compacted and articulated in a manner that is regionally connected and integrated. This would also entail a distinct urban identity and the articulation and resuscitation of an urban core for Ekurhuleni that cohesively integrates high-order urban functions and development potential. The GDS 2055 further requires that the transport inequalities bequeathed to the City by its exclusive and inefficient road- and car-based legacy be redressed. This will require the
EKURHULENI 2022
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