City of Johannesburg

Johannesburg Development Agency

No 3 Helen Joseph Street PO Box 61877 Tel +27(0) 11 688 7851 (O)
The Bus Factory Marshalltown Fax +27(0) 11 688 7899/63
Newtown 2107 E-mail: info@jda.org.za
Johannesburg, 2000

www.jda.org.za
www.joburg.org.za
To: All news editors
For immediate release
12 November 2019

MAIN STREET TO PROVIDE AN ENHANCED PEDESTRIAN EXPERIENCE

The Gandhi Square East precinct has seen many development initiatives in recent years,
including the investment of Jewel City, Afhco developments and Skyrink Studios.

The Johannesburg Development Agency (JDA), on behalf of the City of Johannesburg, has
appointed a consultancy team consisting of an urban planner, an urban designer and traffic
engineer to define an urban development framework for the precinct.

Directors
M Ntanga (Chairperson) F Brink (Acting CEO) S Moonsamy (CFO) S Jensma TG Sambo JW Karuri -Sebina EF Peters K Govender A Steyn P Zagaretos R Shirinda (Company Secretary)
Registration Number: 2001/005101/07
The aim of the framework is to create a functional and integrated inner city live-work-play
precinct, spatially characterised by a mixed-use, good quality public space that caters to the
mobility of pedestrians.

As part of fulfilling the urban development framework, the JDA is implementing the public
environment upgrade of Main Street. The project entails the construction of new sidewalks
and road lay-by facilities, upgrade of storm water system, replacement of street lights and
provision of new street furniture and trees.

Main Street has for long time stood mostly as a car dominated environment, with mainly
blank, inactive interfaces which featured no landscaped spaces or comfortable sidewalks.

Once completed, the Main Street public environment upgrade will provide a high quality
environment and enhance pedestrian experience, featuring wider sidewalks, pedestrian
lighting, landscape, trees and natural elements.

Ongoing public environment upgrades of Main Street spans from Gandhi Square to Mooi
Street. Extensive stakeholder engagement in the precinct was undertaken including Absa,
the anchor tenant in the precinct, Olitzky Property Holdings (OPH), Diversity, Inner City
Partnership Fund, Transnet, the Ward 124 Councilor and the General Public.
Member of the Mayoral Committee for Development Planning, Cllr Reuben Masango, said
that it was critical for opportunities in the inner city to be harnessed and challenges
addressed to benefit all stakeholders in the precinct.

“The vision for the Gandhi Square East Precinct is to create an economically viable,
functional and integrated inner city precinct through the implementation of developmental
and socio-economic strategies and programmes,” MMC Masango added.