Abstract
The draconian planning system of the apartheid regime in South Africa played a huge role in shaping the country's spatial legacy. This planned segregation system left many South African cities with a spatial legacy that cannot support the ever-rising urban population, particularly the black African population that is ever migrating from rural to urban areas. The elements of concern include informal settlements, undesirable spatial configuration, single land use development, improper transportation and different forms of infrastructure. This paper aims to assess the level of spatial transformation across the city of Johannesburg. The paper adopts a case study research design and applies a mixed methods approach. Data was collected through interviews, a literature review on the spatial planning policies, and direct observations of the city's infrastructure. When the country gained its democracy in the year 1994, many policies and legislative frameworks were introduced, all of them having one primary objective: to transform South Africa spatially, mainly the cities. Since then, several policies and legislative frameworks have been implemented with the same vision of transforming the spatial configuration of the urban areas in the country. However, the spatial issues have remained the same for many if not all South African cities. Spaces in these cities remain divided along racial lines. The results revealed an improvement in the level of transformation across the municipality and an improvement in the policies and practice of spatial transformation. Developmental projects such as transit-oriented development have led to income elasticities for properties along the corridors of freedom. Overall, the paper recommends collaborative planning as a tool for assessing the performance of spatial transformation.