Learn from Brics in dealing with migration to the cities SA CAN
learn useful lessons about the relationship between growth,
poverty reduction and urbanisation from the other Brics nations.
The economies of China, India, Brazil and Russia accounted for
almost half of growth in world output between 2000 and 2010. The
role of urbanisation in the economic transformation of these
countries has not been widely appreciated — but now a set of
reports have been published that compares urban growth in each
nation. The timing is apposite, with Census 2011 revealing far
stronger growth of SA’s cities than expected. Gauteng’s
population increased by 31% between 2001 and last year, while
the number of households (and hence the demand for housing and
services) rose by 43%. In Johannesburg and Tshwane, the number
of households almost doubled. People in towns and rural areas
have been moving to the cities in response to a widening gap in
economic and social opportunities. This "urban transition" is
mostly informal, because mi