The Dual Challenge to the Aerotropolis Project of South Africa's Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality

Ekurhuleni was established in 2000 and is also one of the three metropolitan municipalities in the Gauteng Province. Consisting of nine towns which are further divided into 17 townships and 119 recognised informal settlements, it covers over 15.6% of Gauteng’s land mass, making it the fourth largest metropolitan municipality in South Africa. Efforts to build an aerotropolis - a metropolitan sub-region where the layout, infrastructure, and economy are centered on an airport - near OR Tambo International Airport represent one of the city’s core development and poverty alleviation initiatives. At the core of the vision of the Ekurhuleni Aerotropolis is the desire to build a more socio-economic prosperous city, where residents will benefit from the creation of new jobs, the expansion of social infrastructure, and an improvement in the standard of living for all. This brief is based on a qualitative study conducted in multiple sites in Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality from June to August 2015. The study aimed to identify pervasive popular and official perceptions of migration’s effects on destination communities, and explore their origins and implications for socio-economic development in Ekurhuleni. Methods included literature review, a survey of policy and in-depth, open-ended interviews held with relevant stakeholders including municipal officials, leaders of formal and informal trade and business associations, youth organisations and faith-based organisations.