Photo: PresidencyZA / Twitter
Photo: PresidencyZA / Twitter
Cyril Ramaphosa was roundly laughed out of Parliament last year when he started telling us all what a dreamer he is. Well, a hostile response to his fantasies about bullet trains and new cities hasn’t deterred him at SONA 2020. The president revealed that a site in Lanseria has now been chosen to host a brand new metropolis, revealing:
“Last year, I asked the nation to join me in imagining a new smart-city, a truly post-apartheid city that would rise to change the social and economic apartheid spatial architecture.
“Working with development finance institutions we have put together an innovative process that will fund the bulk sewerage, electricity, water, digital infrastructure and roads that will be the foundation of the new city in Lanseria.”
Cyril Ramaphosa at SONA 2020
Okay, so the new city isn’t actually a brand new city. Lanseria actually has an airport and a strong population base. But Ramaphosa wants to take these foundations and turn it into a “smart city”. However, the president has been criticised for “daydreaming”, and diverting attention away from existing cities that need help.
We’d say there are seven things – all revealed during SONA 2020 – that you need to know about these plans:
So the new city is in Lanseria, not Northern Cape or Mpumalanga or North West or Limpopo or Eastern Cape or peripheral Western Cape as I imagined. Nam sometimes I allow myself to dream too much #SONA.
— Thando Mgqolozana (@thando_mgqo) February 13, 2020
We’ve got the 16 biggest talking points here.