Abstract
As early as the mid-1980s it was noted that there was no agreed-upon definition of what a secondary city is, and little progress has been made since then in finding common ground. Further complicating the matter, terms, such as ‘metro towns’, ‘satellite cities’ and ‘middle cities’ and, more commonly, ‘secondary cities’, ‘ordinary cities’, ‘small cities’ and ‘medium-sized cities’. The term secondary is generally viewed as being broader in scope, implying a city positioned somewhere around the middle level of the national urban hierarchy and playing a supplementary role in respect of functions. Urban research in South Africa is largely dominated by work on Cape Town, Johannesburg and Durban, and over the past decade there has been an emerging focus on small towns (Visser in Canadian Journal of African Studies 47(1):75–93, 2013; Visser & Rogerson in Urban Forum. pp. 1–11, 2014). This chapter builds on the small but emerging work on secondary cities over the past few years (Marais, Nel, & Donaldson in Secondary cities and development. Routledge, London, 2016) by presenting case studies of six secondary cities in South Africa: the City of Matlosana (Klerksdorp), eMalahleni (Witbank), Emfuleni (Vanderbijlpark and Vereeniging), uMhlathuze (Richards Bay and Empangeni), Polokwane (formerly Pietersburg) and George. First we define a secondary city and then briefly discuss national secondary city strategies. Before the discussion on the case studies we present a brief discussion on where these cities are located in South Africa.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsReferences
Bell, D., & Jayne, M. (2006). Small cities: Urban experience beyond the metropolis. New York: Routledge.
Bell, D., & Jayne, M. (2009). Small cities? Towards a research agenda. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 33(3), 683–699.
Bolay, J., & Rabinovich, A. (2004). Intermediate cities in Latin America risk and opportunities of coherent urban development. Cities, 21, 407–421.
Chen, X., & Kanna, A. (2012). Rethinking global urbanism: Comparative insights from secondary cities. New York: Routledge.
Christopher, A. J. (1990). Apartheid and urban segregation levels in South Africa. Urban Studies, 27, 421–440.
De Boeck, F., Cassiman, A., & Van Wolputte, S. (2009). Recentering the city: An anthropology of secondary cities in Africa. Pretoria: South Africa.
Dewar, D., Todes, A., & Watson, V. (1986). Industrial decentralization policy in South Africa: Rhetoric and practice. Urban Studies, 23, 363–376.
Duranton, I. (2008). Cities: Engines of growth and prosperity for developing countries (Working paper no. 12). Washington, DC: Commission of Growth and Development, World Bank.
Etherington, D., & Jones, M. (2011). City-regions: New geographies of uneven development and inequality. In M. Neuman & A. Hull (Eds.), The futures of the city region. London: Routledge.
Hardoy, J., & Satterthwaite, D. (1986). Small and intermediate urban centres: Their role in national and regional development in the Third World. London: Hoder and Stoughton.
Harrison, P. (2013). Twenty-year review of South Africa’s spatial development. Unpublished report. Johannesburg: University of the Witwatersrand.
Henderson, J. (2002). Urbanization in developing countries. World Bank Research Observer, 17(1), 89–112.
Lemon, A. (Ed.). (1991). Homes apart: South Africa’s segregated cities. Cape Town: David Philip.
Mabin, A. (1991). The dynamics of urbanisation since 1960. In M. Swilling, R. Humphries, & K. Shubane (Eds.), Apartheid city in transition. Cape Town: Oxford University Press.
Marais, L. (2013a). Resources policy and mine closure in South Africa: The case of the Free State. Goldfields. Resources Policy, 38, 363–372.
Marais, L. (2013b). The impact of mine downscaling on the Free State Goldfields. Urban Forum, 24, 503–521.
Marais, L., & Cloete, J. (2017). The role of secondary cities in managing urbanisation in South Africa. Development Southern Africa, 34(2), 182–195.
Marais, L., Nel, E., & Donaldson, R. (Eds.). (2016). Secondary cities and development. London: Routledge.
Mohan, R. (1983). India: Coming to terms with urbanisation. Cities, 1, 46–58.
National Treasury. (2011). Cities support programme. Framework document—Draft for consultation. Pretoria: National Treasury.
Otiso, K. (2005). Kenya’s secondary cities growth strategy at a crossroads: Which way forward? GeoJournal, 62, 117–128.
Pacione, M. (2013). Problems and planning in Third World cities. Oxon: Routledge.
Richardson, H. (1981). National urban development strategies in developing countries. Urban Studies, 18, 267–283.
Roberts, B. (2014). Managing systems of secondary cities. Brussels: Cities Alliance.
Roberts, B., & Hohmann, R. (2014). The systems of secondary cities. Brussels: Cities Alliance.
Robinson, J. (2006). Ordinary cities. London: Routledge.
Rodríguez-Pose, A., & Dahl Fitjar, R. (2013). Buzz, archipelago economies and the future of intermediate and peripheral areas in a spiky world. European Planning Studies, 21(3), 355–372.
Rogerson, C. M. (2012). Mining-dependent localities in South Africa: The state of partnerships for small town local development. Urban Forum, 23, 107–132.
Rondinelli, D. (1983a). Secondary cities in developing countries: Policies for diffusing urbanisation. Beverly Hills: Sage.
Rondinelli, D. (1983b). Towns and small cities in developing countries. Geographical Review, 73, 379–395.
SACN (South African Cities Network). (2012). Secondary cities in South Africa: The start of a conversation. Johannesburg: SACN.
SACN (South African Cities Network). (2013). The differentiated approach to local government. South Africa’s secondary cities. Johannesburg: SACN.
SACN (South African Cities Network). (2014). Outside the core: Towards understanding of intermediate cities in South Africa. Johannesburg: SACN.
Satterthwaite, D. (2006). Outside the large cities. The demographic importance of small urban centres and large villages in Africa, Asia and Latin America. Human settlements discussion paper—Urban change 3. New York: UNCHS.
Urban Foundation. (1994). Outside the Metropolis: The future of South Africa’s secondary cities. Johannesburg: Urban Foundation.
UNCHS. (1984). Middle-ranked human settlements in territorial organization strategies in Latin America and the Carribean. New York: UNCHS.
UNCHS. (2014). State of the African cities: Re-imagining sustainable urban transitions. Nairobi: UN Habitat.
Van der Merwe, I. J. (1992). In search of an urbanization policy for South Africa: Towards a secondary city strategy. Geography Research Forum, 12, 102–127.
Visser, G. (2013). Looking beyond the urban poor in South Africa: The new terra incognita for urban geography? Canadian Journal of African Studies, 47(1), 75–93.
Visser, G., & Rogerson, C. M. (2014). Reflections on 25 years of Urban Forum. Urban Forum, 25, 1–11.
World Bank. (2010). Systems of cities. Harnessing growth for urbanisation and poverty alleviation. Washington, DC: World Bank.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2020 Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Donaldson, R., Marais, L., Nel, E. (2020). Secondary Cities in South Africa. In: Massey, R., Gunter, A. (eds) Urban Geography in South Africa . GeoJournal Library(). Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-25369-1_8
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-25369-1_8
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-25368-4
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-25369-1
eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)