A) 2.3. Presentation As part of the IIED’s Publications (Human Settlements Group), the current study regarding “Urbanization and Development in South Africa: Economic Imperatives, Spatial Distortions and Strategic Responses” was published in October 2012 by the author Ivan Turok, the Deputy Executive Director of the Human Sciences Research Council in Cape Town. He is an expert adviser to the United Nations, OECD, European Commission, SA Government, UK Government and African Development Bank. The current study was based on 2011 data from the South African Cities Report and also based on a multitude of local and international references, which are indicated in the 2.6 Bibliography segment. It offers a large overview of the current situation, segmentation, statistical data and also solutions to the several outstanding issues of the South African territory after 1994. B) 2.4. Standpoints The focal points of the research are: history of urbanization in South Africa, economic drivers of the current areas under development and solutions and the issue of lack of urban integration and prospects of devolution. I propose to discuss each of them separately. As a short summary of history of urbanization, after World War II, the political domination suppressed the black urbanization and reinforced people’s exclusion by subsidizing the cost of living in the periphery. This is why South Africa has this low-density fragmented form of the cities, with harmful social, economic and environmental consequences which creates poverty traps. According to The World Bank (2014), South Africa has the highest Gini coefficient of income equality (around 60-66%). The economic drivers of the current areas under development unfortunately have been following the same ineffective patterns that were promoting the same segregation. Recently, the local municipalities were delegated in the local problems of each metropolis, by devolving built-environment functions for them: “As housing and transport play such a vital role in land use patterns, the consolidation of these functions at the local level will provide both the leverage to change spatial patterns as well as improve accountability at the level of delivery.” (Treasury, 2011a, p229). South African cities do not follow the same pattern or the same level of infrastructure development. Most of it, due to the fact that major private house-builders and their financiers prefer to supply the population and household with higher income, as being more secure and profitable. All this while the periphery develops by itself with shack areas who cannot afford the services, as cost of transportation or the ones of a residence in the cities and creating potentially insanitary, dangerous and hard to control areas and bringing soil instability and water-borne pollution. The main focal points of development which should have a consistent strategic plan of implementation are: transport (several means of transport, none of them 100% efficient), costs of electricity, water (water supply is also a huge problem, because the gold mining in Gauteng created a unique “acid mine drainage problem”), quality of the households and, why not, in the end the entire urbanization plan that must create a structured appearance of the cities. There are also solutions proposed for the issue of lack of urban integration. The main one is the prospect of devolution of the responsibility locally to the municipalities. But in order to be effective, this requires first of all improvements in municipal leadership and organizational capabilities. The metros need skilled planners, surveyors, engineers, architects and other professional, who can join their competences and break the old patterns. But national government mustn’t completely take the hands of the issues, but actually work closely with the metros and define the focal points and priorities for development. C) 2.5. Conclusions With no explicit urban policy framework and urbanization strategy since the declared democracy in 1994, many migrants occupied unauthorized and informal settlements in the outskirts of the cities. The book proposes the devolution as the foundation of changing directions towards a more positive and forward-looking integrated approach of urbanization in South Africa. But with no realistic projects in place, that should be approved by experts and professionals, with no dedicated case studies based on the projects and a clear understanding of the parameters and feasibility, the devolution plan will not do anything more than drive the same ineffective patterns at micro lever for each metro. --------------------------------------------------------