Chinese developer Zendai Developments had high hopes of building a new R84-billion city in Modderfontein on the East Rand of Gauteng, touting it as the “New York of Africa”.
However, the plan, which dates back to 2014, failed due to funding issues and disagreements with the City of Johannesburg over affordable housing.
The land was sold to South African developer M&T Development in 2017, and the plan for the land shifted from a futuristic smart city to a more traditional suburb.
MyBroadband asked M&T Developments about its plans for the land it acquired in Modderfontein, but it hadn’t responded to our query by the time of publication.
Today, what was meant to be the Modderfontein New City no longer reflects what Zandai Developments envisioned.
However, its new developer, M&T, has made significant progress in its project to build a more modest suburb in the region.
There are new residential and commercial developments, as well as various infrastructure upgrades, including new, pothole-free roads, office parks, and plenty of warehousing space.
It is clear that construction is ongoing on many projects, but several residential complexes appear to have a fair number of households already.
We visited the area on a Sunday at midday, and there was a lot of activity, with many vehicles exiting and entering the complexes.
Companies occupying warehousing space in the area included logistics firms, hardware suppliers, car parts suppliers, and a variety of others.
There were also many billboards advertising both commercial and residential properties available to rent or purchase.
Zendai Developments acquired the land in Modderfontein from chemical producer AECI in 2013 and proposed building a $8 billion (then-R84 billion) futuristic smart city in the region the following year.
Its plans included building a smart city centred around the concept of living in harmony with nature, and it promised:
- 10 hotels
- A CBD
- Multiple shopping centres
- 55,000 residential units
- 1.4 million square metres of office space
- Hospitals and schools
- A conference centre and nature reserve
- Sports centres and a stadium
- An African cultural theme park
There was also a strong focus on leveraging technology to make it a smart city with the latest telecommunications infrastructure.
The megacity was set to create tens of thousands of permanent jobs for residents, and it was said to become the “New York of Africa”.
Zendai Developments broke ground on the project in 2015, beginning with the construction of 300 residential units and the development of basic infrastructure.
However, things went south from there. Zendai Developments faced difficulties in securing funding for the Modderfontein smart city.
The City of Johannesburg had also asked the developer to include 5,000 affordable housing units in its plans, which it refused to do.
In 2015, Dai Zhikang, the founder of Zendai Developments, announced that he was selling his shares to the state-owned China Orient Asset Management Company (COAMC), which became the company’s controlling shareholder.
At the time, some people close to the matter said Zhikang ran out of money for the project after failing to find investors.
COAMC and new Zendai Developments CEO Du Wenhui decided to scale back the project, acknowledging that it couldn’t proceed in its current form. COAMC decided to sell the land in mid-2015.
It sold 17% of its shares to Chinese real estate firm Fuxing in 2016, and the remaining 83% was later sold to M&T Development for R1.6 billion.
The M&T Group moved to acquire all of Zendai’s South African entities for R1.8 billion in 2017, and took control of all assets, including 150 parcels of land in addition to the Modderfontein site.
Below are images of what Zendai Developments envisioned as the “New York of Africa” in Modderfontein, Gauteng, as well as photos of what it looks like today.
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Autor(en)/Author(s): Myles Illidge
Dieser Artikel ist neu veröffentlicht von / This article is republished from: My Broadband, 27.01.2026
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