Smart cities: This is a render from the Zendai Modderfontein project that was cancelled.
Who remembers the proposed Modderfontein Mega City – the R84 billion “New York of Africa” that was supposed to rise on Johannesburg’s East Rand?
Maybe you don’t. Because it never materialised.
In 2013, Shanghai Zendai, a Chinese developer, bought 1 600 hectares from the chemical company AECI for R1 billion.
The vision was to build a futuristic city that would rival Sandton with 55 000 homes, 10 malls, 10 hotels, a CBD, 1.4 million square metres of office space, schools, hospitals, a stadium and even a theme park.
Construction began in 2015, with the development of 300 residential units and some infrastructure. Suddenly, activity on site went silent…
By 2017, the project had collapsed under the weight of funding shortfalls, rezoning disputes, and overambition.
I heard that the City of Johannesburg learnt about the project through the news, not through direct engagement from the developer.
When the City of Johannesburg requested that the developer include 5 000 affordable housing units in their luxurious mega city development, the developer declined to rework the plans, and the city withdrew its support. Without the support of local authorities, it’s easy to see why this project never took off.
M&T Group later took over the land and has since built small-scale housing, nothing close to the skyscraper skyline once promised.
Ironically, Zendai’s chairman was later arrested in China for illegal fundraising.
Maybe it’s a blessing the “New York of Africa” never got past the PowerPoint stage.
Flash forward to today, and I feel like developers are still casually throwing the word “city” around like it’s confetti. We are still calling every large mixed-use development a “city” when they should be recognised as large-scale mixed-use precincts.
Bankenveld District City (BDC), for instance, is a new R18 billion mixed-use project between Sandton and Waterfall. It’s 300 hectares – ambitious, yes, but hardly a city.
For comparison, Waterfall spans more than 2 200 hectares.
Developed by Eris Property Group and Calgro M3 (with Nedbank as a partner), Bankenveld promises 30 000 homes, offices, retail, schools, clinics, and green space over 15 to 20 years. About 34% of the land will go toward infrastructure.
But the questions we should be asking are:
- l Will it relieve pressure on Sandton and Waterfall, or just stretch Joburg’s sprawl?
- Can infrastructure – roads, water, electricity, public transport – keep up?
- And in our current housing crisis, how many of those 30 000 units will be affordable?
Bankenveld isn’t the only one.
The Southern Farms Mega City in Joburg South – valued at over R27 billion – promises 43 000 houses over 10 years. Only 27% of the 4 000-hectare site is developable; the rest is reserved for biodiversity conservation.
The city first announced this project in 2018, saying that construction would begin the following year. For now, planning and approvals are mostly done or being finalised.
However, the site was handed over to the construction company, Sephahaphaha Trading and Projects, only earlier this year.
Then there’s Cullinan Mega City, launched in 2017 in Tshwane.
The 180-hectare project was also meant to tackle the housing backlog – but no real construction updates exist today.
Simeka Capital Holdings has published on its website that they were awarded 5 200 housing units as part of this Mega Project’s initiative. They also state that the scheme would be largely subsidised by provincial government.
When I called their office to find out more information, they told me that the project never went ahead, and they are no longer involved.
And remember Daggafontein Mega City in Springs? Announced in 2016, with a plan for 17 000 homes. Nearly a decade later, not a single house stands. Over R300 million of taxpayer money has been spent on infrastructure groundwork, and the completion timeline has now drifted to 2030.
Back in 2019, then Ekurhuleni Mayor Mzwandile Masina announced a slate of mega city projects worth billions, all promising thousands of homes to ease the housing shortage.
Years later, most remain renderings and rhetoric.
It’s been a decade of announcements, and the pattern is painfully familiar: big promises, glossy masterplans, ribbon-cutting ceremonies… and then silence.
Here’s the bigger problem. We announce “mega cities” before the soil is even tested, before bulk infrastructure is ready, before the financing is secured. Then we wonder why they fail.
It’s not that we don’t need big, bold projects – we absolutely do.
The housing backlog and urban density challenges are massive. But what we’re seeing instead is a theatre of announcements. These “cities” become smoke and mirrors – dazzling us with renderings while real people wait decades for homes.
South Africa doesn’t need another “mega city” with big promises and no foundations. It needs cities that work – developments rooted in demand, affordability and local partnerships. Because let’s be honest, the word “city” has lost all meaning when it comes to the mega mirage. We don’t need more PowerPoints. We need progress.