The institutionalisation of cultural policy has, to date, become an effective tool for culture-led development in some parts of the world. South Africa is yet to fully embrace this phenomenon in its developmental matrix. While the government has introduced certain strategies, such as the Integrated Development Plan (IDP), to coordinate its post-apartheid development imperatives across all of its spheres, role players, such as politicians, town planners and developers, continue to carry on with their subjective approaches to development, without culture as the mediator. This perpetuates the fragmentation of spatial landscapes and infrastructure networks in these areas along racial and cultural lines. This article suggests that South Africa may benefit from formulating local, cultural policies for the revitalisation of decaying cities into new integrated, liveable and vibrant residential, business and sporting environs.