Alison Todes – The Conversation

Nelson Mandela Bridge in Johannesburg. Getty Images

October 17, 2023

South Africa’s 2022 census: has Johannesburg stopped growing, or are the numbers wrong?

Philip Harrison, University of the Witwatersrand; Alison Todes, University of the Witwatersrand; Darlington Mushongera, University of the Witwatersrand, and Graeme Gotz, Gauteng City-Region Observatory

If the numbers are correct, and it’s not certain that they are, Cape Town may have overtaken Johannesburg as the largest city in South Africa.

Shenzhen, in China’s southern Guangdong province. A village until 1980, it’s a rare new city success story. Photo by Jade Gao / AFP via Getty Images

August 14, 2022

Philip Harrison, University of the Witwatersrand and Alison Todes, University of the Witwatersrand

New towns have had a better track record in places of rapid economic and population growth, such as east Asian countries.