Post-Apartheid National Spatial Development Planning in South Africa - A Brief History

Since coming to power in 1994 successive ANC-governments have engaged in a series of attempts at national spatial development planning in South Africa. These engagements have received scant treatment in the planning literature. In this paper a broad overview of these initiatives is provided, with an emphasis on the different instruments; the context in which they were developed; the institutions that were proposed and/or created in support of the instruments; and the extent to which the instruments were implemented and what their levels of success were. The paper concludes with a call for comparative research, including South Africa, in this arena

The need for an appropriate system of urban development control in South Africa: Arguments and characteristics

Urban development control in South Africa has of late come under attack from a number of sources. This has led to a lively debate on the future of urban development control as such. In this article the need for a system of urban development control for South Africa is argued with the emphasis on the appropriateness of such a system. Six arguments in support of this view are presented. This is followed by a discussion of some of the characteris­tics of what is deemed to be an appro­priate system, or should otherwise form the basis of such a system

Challenging Times and Planning: Origins, Endings and New Beginnings?

Planning was born in and of crisis. Given the multiple challenges facing the world, it may rightly be asked whether Planning would not be willing and able to assist in taking these on. In this short commentary, it is argued that the chances of this happening are slim, but not impossible, should a number of changes be made that put hope, belief, reason, and dream to collective task again

Revisiting planning education at the University of Pretoria

This article discusses the way in which the Department of Town and Regional Planning at the University of Pretoria is using three sets of projects in which it has participated over the past twelve years in revising its planning curricula. These three projects, namely improving intergovernmental development planning; enhancing community-based planning, and presenting and participating in capacity-building and certificated short courses, are discussed, in conjunction with what faculty experienced and observed, and what lessons were learnt with regard to the Department’s planning curricula. This is followed by a discussion of the implications of the experiences and lessons learnt in the three projects for planning education on a more generic level

Planning in the face of silence: A phronetic study of the restructuring of the planning function in the City of Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality

The article provides an overview of the transformation of the planning function of the City of Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality (CTMM) read against the study by Flyvbjerg (1998) of the Aalborg Project. It focuses specifically on the human experience of the transformation process and the influence that power relations had on the outcome thereof. The study is historically situated within the broader context of the restructuring of local government in South Africa following the advent of a democratic dispensation in 1994. Theoretically it is dealt with both from the perspective of organisational theory and that of contemporary planning theory. The analysis shows that the CTMM is still a strongly managerialist environment where power is vested in the organisational hierarchy. It furthermore shows that democratic ideals are yet to precipitate in the day­to-day operational activities of the municipality. The lack of regard for people is highlighted as a serious flaw in the transformation process. The role of communication as a powerful tool in exercising power is confirmed. More significantly, however, it is found that failure to communicate can be used effectively by those in power to silence the objections of the weaker party in an unequal power relationship

City improvement districts in South Africa: An exploratory overview

This article discusses the City Improvement District as a recent phenomenon in urban South Africa. The reason for doing so stems from a lack of basic information on the concept in the local literature. The findings, based on a study conducted in the second half of 2004 and including all the Improvement Districts in operation in the country at that time, are presented in three key areas of the concept – land use profiles, financial aspects and services rendered. This is done within the context of the international situation with regards to the concept, and compared with an international study conducted in 2003, as basis

The sub-national economic and spatial development impacts of AGOA in Lesotho: An exploratory study

This exploratory study investigates the sub-national economic and spatial development outcomes of the African Growth and Opportunity Act, 2000 (AGOA) in Lesotho. The findings reveal that the settlements where the ‘AGOA-factories’ are located have experienced not only positive, but also significant negative economic and spatial impacts. While AGOA resulted in the creation of tens of thousands of job opportunities for unskilled and semi-skilled Basotho youth, it did not provide them with portable skills for use once they had left the AGOA factory floor. Neither did AGOA motivate the youth or local entrepreneurs to tap into the manufacturing sector. In terms of spatial development, the AGOA factories had led to infrastructure investment, essentially to serve the factories, which, in turn, also benefited the surrounding territories. In many of the settlements, rental units – unplanned and without planning permission – have been constructed in response to the huge demand for affordable housing by the thousands of migrant workers. While fulfilling a definite need, these units have simultaneously led to the development of monotonous ‘sleeper towns’, over-burdening of already strained municipal services, haphazard land development, and a feeling of ‘anything goes’. The research findings suggest that, while ‘trade and development boosting tools’ such as AGOA may be useful in providing term-based job opportunities for an unskilled workforce, they will most likely not have as significant a positive impact on the local economy, the creation of an indigenous industrial class, or the building of sustainable human settlements

Spatial connections and disconnections: A critique on the conceptualisation of Tshwane (2000 to 2004)

This article had its origins in an interest with the disjuncture between the way people think things are and should be, and the way things ‘really are’. Pursuing this notion took place with an appreciation of the inventive role that language can play in exploring and reporting on these different worlds. The article explores some of the emerging meanings, representations, understandings and visualisations of the rapidly-changing urban condition in the 21st century with particular reference to South Africa. The particular case in point, the City of Tshwane, is contextualised and expounded upon by making use of post-modern writings on the contemporary urban condition, urban planning thought and personal interpretations/signage of the local spatial scenery. In a personal re-interpretation of the spatial conditions of the city, i.e. the ‘spaces of recognition’, an open dialogue is entered into with the prevailing ‘spaces of reflection’, i.e. planners’ documentary portrayals of the current ‘spatialities’ and their views and wishes for a better future. Through employing a deconstructive mode of reading the mounting disjuncture, tension and irony in and between the recognisable urban reality and the conceptualised spatial scenery is revealed. The primary argument put forward in the article resonates around planners’ stubborn persistence to hang onto outdated and inappropriate language to make sense of and respond to the world in which they live/function. The authors subsequently argue a case for a far more vivid, fluid, responsive and innovative planning vocabulary, and discourse. In the process they suggest that it is not only the lack of new words/ideas that is of concern, but also the limiting effect that the lack of ’new words/concepts’ have on what planners can see and are willing to see and navigate into existence.&nbsp

Territorialiteit op woonbuurtvlak: 'n Voorspellende model

Actions aimed against undesirable change(s) in neighbourhoods represent an ostensible form of territorial behav­iour, the incidence of which was analysed in so-called “white" residen­tial areas of varying socio-economic status in Pretoria. From the study it appears that people prefer to reside in neighbourhoods where the manageability is such that it either gratifies, or otherwise facilitates the fulfillment of their most important needs. In order to maintain (or to enhance) the desired level of manage­ability of their respective neighbour­hoods, residents resist change which they deem to be undesirable. Territorial perceptions and all these entail, including perceived threats, dif­fer markedly across the spectrum of socio-economic status. A predictive model was constructed from existing literature on the subject, in terms of which territoriality at the neighbourhood-level can be explained. This model was verified with data collected in two questionnaire surveys, two visu­al surveys and a zoning survey. In this manner an explanation is offered from an environmental psychological per­spective for the phenomena of people distancing themselves spatially from undesirable land uses, as well as high-risk crime areas and undesirable social conditions. It is through individual actions aimed at achieving the desired level of manageability that the later is/can be attained at the neighbour­hood-level. In this manner micro ­motives ultimately find spatial expres­sion in the urban mosaic.*This article is written in Afrikaans

National spatial development planning in South Africa 1930-2010: An introductory comparative analysis

This article reviews the various attempts at national spatial development planning that have been introduced in South Africa over the past eighty years. It demonstrates that, despite the ostensible support for national planning during this period, such plans and proposals rarely had a direct impact on the conduct of government business. Using both the authors’ personal experiences with the most recent such ‘plan’ – the National Spatial Development Perspective – they seek to explain why such planning initiatives are so difficult to introduce and implement. Key in this regard, they argue, is that while most national planning initiatives are formulated in a control paradigm common to more local planning contexts, the plans have to function within a complex and tightly interwoven national, provincial and local system that is essentially incompatible with such a paradigm. The historical overview, they argue, suggests that such a national spatial planning intervention would require a far harder-edged form of governance leaning more in the direction of intervention and control and less so in the direction of the current softer forms of dialogue, facilitation and guidance premised by the 1996 Constitution