The Westown Smart City development in Shongweni, KwaZulu-Natal, may look like just an enormous mall with construction underway around it. However, developers have made major strides in recent months.
Located just off the N3 highway in what used to be a sugarcane plantation, Westown is promised to be a mixed-use development that incorporates living, working, shopping, and play.
Durban-based Fundamentum Property Group is leading its development through the Fundamentum Development Company.
According to Westown’s developers, a significant amount of construction work has taken place over the past six months.
This includes completing the earthworks for the West Private Hospital and Balwin’s 1260 Shongweni Eco Park, as well as connecting both developments to required services.
“Further to the construction work that has taken place, this year will see the opening of apartments in Shongweni Eco Park, the full launch of the 360-unit Kaleido development,” they told MyBroadband.
They added that the West Private Hospital will also commence construction on its top structure, alongside the 80,000-square-meter Farrier Business Park.
“Detailed designs are also underway on a new commercial/petrol filling station ahead of construction towards the end of this year,” the developers said.
“We are building a ‘City within a City’, Durban’s new destination for investment, development, shopping, living, working, and playing.”
Construction on Westown began in August 2022. However, the idea for the smart city was formulated long before then.
According to Themba Masimula, a senior project manager at the eThekwini Municipality’s Catalytic Projects Unit, planning for Westown began over 15 years ago.
“We conceptualised this development to change the development trajectory of the West, from Durban to Pietermaritzburg,” he said.
“The interest was always to build a mixed-use development that’s going to incorporate the live, work, play, kind of situation.”
Masimula was speaking at the project’s first phase launch in March 2025. He explained that the development would create jobs and investment opportunities.
“The main concern is to ensure that, with this development, we bring about jobs, we bring about shopping and dining in one area,” said Masimula.
“This development is one of those pioneer developments the President spoke about in one of his State of the Nation Addresses when he spoke about smart cities.”
He added that the Westown development is one of the smart cities that the eThekwini Municipality is pioneering.
Plans for high-tech maintenance and infrastructure
According to Masimula, the Westown smart city will incorporate technology into its maintenance and other operations.
“For example, if there are electricity faults, if there are water leaks, the system will be centralised. It will pick up on those, and the maintenance of those will be quicker than it is currently,” he said.
He added that Westown will also implement modern technology in its security and law enforcement operations to ensure timely responses.
“If there is a crime hotspot, the system will ensure that they intervene timeously,” Masimula said.
In a statement from April 2024, the eThekwini Municipality said it had invested R600 million in bulk infrastructure for the region.
A R2-billion agreement between the municipality, the Fundamentum Property Group, and Balwin Properties also supports the project.
“This investment will yield huge returns for the City,” said former Mayor Mxolisi Kaunda.
According to the former mayor, Westown Square, the project’s high-street shopping, dining, and lifestyle establishment, will generate around R21 million per year in rates income.
He added that this would increase to over R500 million per year following the completion of the entire development in 2037, which is estimated to cost R15 billion.
Kaunda explained that the development would comprise nine mixed-use precincts once completed.
“Westown Square will be complemented by commercial, residential, logistics, and industrial components, including a private hospital,” he said.
“We are excited that this is going to be the first real smart city in the province and will make eThekwini a world-class city.”
He added that, as of April 2024, the project had hired around 1,000 people from the area and surrounding areas to construct the bulk infrastructure and Westown Square.
Balwin Properties CEO Steve Brookes said the construction phase of Shongweni Eco Park would create roughly 8,000 jobs, with around 500 permanent jobs expected once it is completed.
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Autor(en)/Author(s): Myles Illidge
Dieser Artikel ist neu veröffentlicht von / This article is republished from: My Broadband, 28.01.2026
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