South Africa’s new R15bn city square opens near Durban

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24-03-2025
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Mail & Guardiam
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The developers of Westown Square, the mall at South Africa’s newest R15 billion city in Shongweni, west of eThekwini metro, have laid the final bricks to complete construction ahead of its official opening to the public this week.

Fundamentum Property Group director Sean Bergsma, speaking at the launch of the R1.3 billion mall this week, said it marked the realisation of a vision shared with his co-director and brother, Donovan, and chief executive Carolos Correira, to build an “economically inclusive” town in the region.

Westown Square is designed around a high street concept, and is in the heart of the 2000 hectare urban mixed-used Westown development near Hillcrest. It will comprise a hospital, school, retirement village, apartments and houses, in several phases of construction over 10 to 15 years.

Construction of the mall, which includes open spaces with walls decorated with murals by local artists and shrubs, started along with a R730 million upgrade of water, sanitation and road infrastructure that included the widening of Kassier Road – which links with the N3 and M13 – in September 2022.

The development aims to create a new economic hub to catalyse investment, stimulate job creation and attract services closer to where people live. As a green development it will include walking and biking trails and incorporates renewable energy, including solar generated power, in its design.  

Large retail tenants in the retail section include Checkers Hyper, Checkers Liquor, Petshop Science, Dis-Chem, Edgars, Legit, Milady’s, Mr Price Weekend Home and Sport, a Pick n Pay Clothing and supermarket, Clicks, Pep, Pep Home, Refinery, Incredible Connection and Ackermans.

The Barn is an area of the mall that comprises smaller, market-style tenants, providing trading space for local small businesses that were previously only able to trade on weekends and special public holidays at the nearby Shongweni Market. Robson’s Real Beer Brewery will also open a branch at the square.

Bergsma, who lives in nearby Summerveld, said the journey to create Westown started seven years ago, with a vision to embrace the existing community, including its sporting and equestrian focus, and to construct a town that would be economically inclusive while retaining the natural beauty of the region.

He said local traditional leaders and the provincial government had been supportive of the project that had started with the purchase of 2000 hectares of land from Tongaat Hulett – similar in size to the Umhlanga Ridge new town centre on the North Coast.

“It’s been an instrumental partnership showing that the private and public sectors can work together, can deliver stuff that is unbelievable, of the highest quality, and that we can do it without high levels of wastage,” Bergsma said.

He added that financial institutions, in particular Absa, had been a catalyst to making the project work.

“It’s not the building that gets me excited, it’s not the infrastructure that brings tears to my eyes, it’s the vision we shared in a boardroom years ago – a vision of inclusiveness, opportunity, economic empowerment and localisation.”

He said about 1500 construction workers had worked on site in recent weeks as well as 500 shopfitters.

Bergsma said the developers had established the Westown Foundation which would support skills development and small businesses.

“We did a training camp with Stefanutti Stocks and they trained people that came with no skills, that were sitting at home doing nothing with no income. We trained those people to become operators, to become brick layers that became an active part of this community, building economic value and stimulating their own economic power,” he said.

“Today we have a number of success stories, young women who would never have been in the construction industry, driving large trucks on site, earning a significant income and participating in an economy that they never thought would be possible.”

He said in another case a local man who was employed in the public service had been trained as a paver. He established a small family business, in which he employed his two sons and was now achieving revenue in excess of R1 million a year.

Westown marketing and communications executive Cara Reilly said the mall was on track to open next week.

“Westown is ready to open on 27 March at 9am with over 120 tenants in beneficial occupation and preparing their stores. A second phase to follow will be the opening of the Fashion Walk, so new openings will be ongoing over the next few months,” Reilly said.

The Hillcrest-raised Bergsma brothers started their first business from their parent’s home some 20 years ago, and went on to open their first call centre in the Durban CBD as young businessmen before opening their large 3500 employee strong Ignition Group call centre in Umhlanga and embarking on prolific property developments across KwaZulu-Natal, and buying the online platform Gumtree South Africa. 

Fundentum has also been involved in significant property developments including Midway Crossing in Newlands, North of Durban, 12 on Palm Boulevard and the Centenerary Office Park in Umhlanga.