Nkuna Smart City Project Underway in Limpopo, South Africa

Nkuna City is a smart city project under development on 119 hectares piece of land located at Nkuzana hamlet, near the town of Elim in Limpopo, the northernmost province of South Africa. The city is set to have facilities for industries, shopping centers, value retail, residential, business site, hotel with conference facilities, intermodal facility, medical, educational, and sports facilities.

The project is developed by the Masingita Group of Companies, which is a leader in large-scale retail property development in the South African country. Nkuna City is reportedly the fourth post-apartheid city to be developed after Lanseria Smart Metropolis, Mooikloof Mega City, and Durban Aerotropolis. However, unlike the others, Nkuna City development, according to Masingita Group, may be the first project of its kind to be led by a black entrepreneur without the involvement of large foreign investors.

The project’s developer, who already owns several retail malls in Gauteng, Limpopo, and North West, stated that a vision inspired him to build malls and cities because he believed that black people could not simply be good for RDP dwellings.

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Expectations for the Nkuna City and development of the other similar projects

Smart cities are expected to create employment by creating thousands of jobs,  enhancing local economies, and revolutionizing the country’s property landscape. According to Masingita Group, Nkuna City is not an exception. It would produce over 8,000 employment during the building phase and over 6,000 permanent jobs once it is fully operational.

The same is also expected for the Lanseria city that is being built by SMEC South Africa, an international business with over 70 years of engineering and infrastructure development experience, the Mooikloof City that is being developed by Steven Brookes’ Balwin Properties, and the Durban Aerotropolis that is being developed by Dube Tradeport, a KwaZulu-Natal government business company, near King Shaka International Airport.

Nkuna declared that he was committed to establishing additional cities, claiming that the democratic administration had done little more than rename existing ones.