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Economy On The Rise In Former Apartheid Hotbed

Posted by: Nate Berg

28 September 2007 - 7:00am

From a former hotbed of apartheid has risen a bastion of economic hope. A new shopping mall is part of the economic turnaround in the South African township of Soweto.

"Former President Nelson Mandela opened the largest shopping center in Soweto on Thursday, more evidence of the business boom that is transforming South Africa's most famous township."

"The 699,654-square-foot, $86 million Maponya Mall is the latest venture by Richard Maponya, a close associate of Mandela and one of Soweto's oldest entrepreneurs."

"Soweto, the sprawling township in the southwest of Johannesburg, was envisioned by apartheid's architects as merely a warehouse for workers. Since the end of apartheid more than a decade ago, it has increasingly established itself as a community — where people live, work and shop, and where business sees opportunity."

Full Story: Ex-Apartheid Hotbed Transforms
Source: Time, September 27, 2007
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Much like Victorian reformers of the 1890s, we find ourselves at a pivotal moment for urban reform. Rather than standardization, sanitation, and social order, cities are now looking to promote "livability" and "sustainability".
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