ABSTRACT
This chapter begins by discussing issues of city size, particularly in relation to population and the economy. Hitherto, urban research in South Africa has generally focused on the three main metros, Cape Town, Johannesburg and Durban/eThekwini, and more recently on smaller towns. Internationally, the size of urban areas is increasingly acknowledged as a basic determinant of economic development. The label 'secondary' implies that a city is secondary to a country's main usually larger cities. The criteria for size be expanded to include such factors as municipal revenue and expenditure, infrastructure networks, the property tax base, and charges for water, electricity and other utilities. The chapter concludes with an examination of uniquely South African policy issues. International competitiveness has increased substantially since South Africa returned to the global economy in the early 1990s. The risks associated with the decline of mining are widely discussed in the literature.
