ATTRACTIONS
South Africa’s largest shopping Mall ever
built in a single phase
The Mall of Africa has opened in Midrand
(28th April 2016) and South Africans are
flocking towards Africa’s newest mall,
despite the large numbers of people
and long queues. Twitter buzzed all week
around with photos of the traffic inside
and outside the mall, and commentary
from people who can’t understand all
the hype.
Mall of Africa is the newest shopping mall
located in Midrand, Gauteng. It is the
largest single phase shopping mall to be
built in Africa with a total retail area of 131
000 square metres, and a gross area of
550 000 square meters.
Mall of Africa was incepted to be the
centerpiece of Waterfall City, an upcoming mixed-use development located in
Midrand. Located between Johannes-
page 28 | Issue #59
burg and Pretoria the Mall and Waterfall
is easily accessible to most of Gauteng.
Construction began in 2012 and was originally planned to open in March 2016, but
was later slated to April 2016.
Mall of Africa will have anchor tenants including Woolworths, Edgars, Game and
Checkers. The shopping mall also houses
flagship stores in South Africa for international brands such as H&M, Cotton On and Forever 21. As well as introducing new brands
to South Africa like Starbucks, Mango Man,
The Kooples, Zara Home, Armani Exchange,
Under Armour and Soap Stories.
Mall of Africa was inspired by Africa’s
geological features, as evident by its
courts. The shopping mall has 2 main
levels of shopping as well as an outside
restaurant area which connects directly
to the Waterfall City Park. The shopping
mall is characterized by its African inspired Courts. The Crystal Court is located
in the Northern Section of the mall, representing Southern Africa’s mineral wealth
with sharp geometric patterns. The Great
Lakes Court is located the Eastern Section
of the mall, representing the Great Lakes
mostly of East Africa and has calm and
gentle materials used. The Desert Court is
located in the Southern Section of the mall,
representing the Sahara Desert of North Africa and has calm motifs used in traditional
Berber carpets. The Oleum Court is located in the Western Section of the mall,
representing West Africa’s Oil wealth. The
Forest Walk Court is in the centre of the
shopping mall, representing Central Africa and its rainforests.