ABSTRACT
Knowledge-based economy has scaled up because of continued advances in information and communication technologies. For a knowledge city, economic activities pertain using brainpower, technology and research to create high-value-added products. Knowledge-based societies prepare for future generations meet their needs by maintaining an environment that is productive biologically, healthy and physically attractive. The problem faced in sustaining the current industrial capitalist model of urban regional development is that cities eventually risk surpassing the manageable limits for superimposed growth, which leads to collapse environmentally, socially, economically and psychologically. The COVID-19 pandemic has negatively impacted developmental initiatives in African cities, thus post-pandemic planning is key to the recovery process. The main objective of the chapter is to determine how knowledge-based management can be implemented in African cities to ensure sustainable development, given limited tangible resources, with Gqeberha (Port Elizabeth) city in South Africa as a case study. The methodology employed is a review of literature whereby global best practice experiences are analysed to find out how other cities are developing their creative urban regions. The review shows that African cities can promote knowledge-based development hence create knowledge cities by ensuring that people acquire technical knowledge that will enable them to innovate products and services. They can develop a highly skilled workforce through research and development and utilising the international multi-ethnic characteristics of its cities. The cities can promote start-up and entrepreneurial activities, utilise existing efficient urban transport system, create metropolitan industrial clusters, utilise the ocean economy where possible and ensure that the population has access to communication networks that are advanced at a low cost. With knowledge-based economies, cities can eventually migrate from the current industrial capitalist model of urban regional development which is not sustainable in the long run.
