Browsing by Author "Smit, Warren"

Now showing 1 - 6 of 6
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Open Access
    Analysing the application of “Reblocking” of informal settlements in the City of Ekurhuleni
    (2019) Basson, Annelien; Smit, Warren
    Dealing with the challenge of informal settlements is one of the biggest issues facing South Africa and other countries of the global South. There is an urgent need to document and reflect on attempts to intervene in informal settlements. This dissertation investigates and analyses the application of ‘reblocking’, a particular approach to informal settlement upgrading, in the City of Ekurhuleni in Gauteng Province, South Africa, and assess the extent to which it complies with the accepted principles of good informal settlement upgrading. Reblocking essentially involves the realignment of structures in an informal settlement to enable basic services to be delivered, and can also result in reduced fire risk and more usable communal spaces. The process of reblocking is also valuable as collaborative planning tool to build grassroots capacity. First of all, based on a review of the literature and interviews with practitioners and scholars, the principles of what can be regarded as ‘good’ informal settlement upgrading were collated. The policy context of upgrading in South Africa (particularly the Upgrading of Informal Settlements Programme) is reviewed, and the history of the reblocking approach in South Africa (first implemented by Slum Dwellers International with the City of Cape Town, and subsequently adopted by the City of Ekurhuleni) is examined. The case study of reblocking in Ekurhuleni Municipality is then discussed in detail. Finally, the dissertation compares the experiences of reblocking in Ekurhuleni with the principles of ‘good’ informal settlement upgrading and with the other South African approaches to reblocking, and makes recommendations for how informal settlements could be better addressed in Ekurhuleni (and elsewhere). The key findings of the dissertation are that, while reblocking can be very beneficial in terms of providing services and empowering communities, the approach used in Ekurhuleni is less participatory and thus has fewer social benefits than its counterpart in the City of Cape Town. In addition, all South African reblocking initiatives avoid providing de jure security of tenure, and can even decrease de facto security of tenure (as many reblocked settlements are still at risk of relocation), which negates one of the major advantages of initial public investment. The dissertation highlights that there is a need for transformed mindsets, policies and bureaucratic systemsthat are better aligned with the complex and dynamic nature of informal settlements, in view of the growing housing backlog in the CoE, South Africa and the global south.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Open Access
    Conflicting rationalities and the governance of homelessness in Ward 64, Cape Town
    (2022) Cousins, Danica; Selmeczi, Anna; Smit, Warren
    In South Africa there is no national mandate or coherent policy framework around the issue of homelessness. Therefore no budget, laws or policies can be used to mobilize and unify the actors involved in the governance of homelessness. This, accompanied by an out of date City of Cape Town Street People Policy, has left the question of "who is responsible for service provision to street-based people'' ambiguous and politically inflammatory. This study explores the value of understanding the problem of homelessness and the way it is governed at a local level. Therefore, it examines how the multiple and varied understandings of street-based people affect governance of the issue of homelessness in Ward 64, Cape Town. To do so, an ethnographic case study approach was combined with Watson's theory of Conflicting Rationalities and used to examine the sociological experiences of street-based people. What resulted was a framework which allowed the “logics and imperatives” of homelessness to be understood through a rationality of survival. Approaching an investigation of homelessness through this rationality validates and reasons with the experiences and survivalist activities of street-based people. To investigate the governance of homelessness in the Ward, data from multiple in-depth interviews and fieldwork observations was analysed through a nodal governance framework. The results indicate that nodes whose engagement with street-based people is motivated by the complaints of, and their responsibility to City and Ward residents, deploy reactive technologies. Alternatively, nodes whose primary responsibility is to street-based people employ a variety of developmental responses. The success of a developmental response is largely reliant on effective partnerships. However, organisational pride and competition for funding present significant challenges to these partnerships and, therefore to the effective governance of homelessness. The case study presented in this thesis highlights the value of Ward level research and interventions into homelessness. Accepting that street-based people are not a homogenous group leads to an understanding that homelessness will not present the same in different areas. Therefore, the facilitation of realistic and meaningful strategies to govern homelessness requires a local understanding of the interaction between the multiple rationalities of both street-based people and governance stakeholders.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Open Access
    Exploring and profiling of childhood illnesses in informal settlements in relation to flooding: a case study of Barcelona, Cape Town South Africa
    (2013) Machiridza, Rumbudzayi Dorothy; Smit, Warren
    A significant number of studies have documented illnesses that follow flooding as a result of people coming into contact with contaminated water. Floods cause health risks by exposing children to bacteria, protozoa, viruses and fungi through contaminated water, contaminated household items, dead animals and mould, as a result of inhalation, ingestion and wound infections. This study focuses on the impacts of flooding on child health in the informal settlement of Barcelona, Cape Town. The health outcomes of flooding are conceptualized within the vulnerability framework of Turner and colleagues (2003), which explores human vulnerability in terms of exposure, sensitivity and resilience. In addition, the framework reflects global environment change and it powerfully defines the term vulnerability. There were three main research objectives. Firstly, the research established factors and other stressors that determined the occurrence of water-related illnesses among children in informal settlements as a result of flooding. Secondly, the research explored and identified the flood-related childhood illnesses. Lastly, the research identified strategies households applied in order to protect their children from flood-related illnesses. The study was conducted through the administration of 45 questionnaires, 2 focus group interviews and personal observation. The study adopted both qualitative and quantitative methodologies in order to understand the perceptions of what flood-related illnesses were and what caused them. Results from the qualitative research were used to triangulate data from the quantitative research. The integration of both methodologies provided additional solutions to understanding the impacts of floods on child health in Barcelona. Ethics approval was granted by Ethics Committee of the Engineering and the Built Environment Faculty at the University of Cape Town. The research findings suggest that flood-related illnesses in Barcelona were a result of different and interlinking factors. The various factors included poor access to basic services, general poor urban health, and location of the settlement and household hygienic factors. In addition, children were more exposed to risks inside dwellings as compared to risks outside dwellings. Vector-borne illnesses were the least recorded cases. In order to mitigate child illnesses resulting from flooding the households applied both proactive and reactive strategies such as buying of medication before and during flooding, bathing their children after they finish playing, and sending children to relatives during the flooding period and cleaning dwellings after flooding. Research findings highlighted that there is a significant association between child health and flooding in Barcelona. The types of illnesses that were reported were mainly water-related illnesses, which included respiratory illnesses, gastrointestinal illnesses, skin and ear infections and vector-borne illnesses.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Open Access
    The real cost of low income settlements: experiences in varied spatial contexts within the same municipal boundary
    (2016) Sahabodien, Raudhiyah; Smit, Warren
    Introduction: Since 1994, the response to the low income housing backlog in South Africa has been met with the capital grant, targeted at households earning less than R3500 per month. Scholars and policy makers echo the same sentiments that state funded housing and facilities should be located close to economic opportunities and in close proximity to public transportation systems. However, due to the limitations of the grant, low income housing development has been typically been limited to cheap peripheral land where large scale low income housing projects can be rolled out in the form of low density housing developments. In recent years, a growing body of knowledge has found that the provision of state funded housing opportunities on the urban periphery has a significant impact on urban sustainability, particularly the financial sustainability of government. This study aims to add to the body of knowledge pertaining to how the roll out of low income housing in various locations within the same municipal area affects a household's ability to access economic and social opportunities in terms of financial and social costs to the household. Method: The study considers Hessequa Municipality as a case study, with four settlements within the municipality (Slangrivier, Kwanonkuthula, Diepkloof and Melkhoutfontein) used as sub-cases. The four settlements vary greatly in spatial location, population size, history, growth potential and functional role, thus providing a good opportunity to examine the impacts the provision of low income housing by the state within different spatial locations on the lives of households. A case study research approach is applied, using a mix of methods, namely: a review of documents, the mapping of existing facilities, and a survey of 20 households in each of four settlements. Results: The analysis found notable differences between the provision and access to services amongst the four settlements. The study found that that facility provision to low income households varies from settlement to settlement and that a household's perception about whether accessibility to facilities has improved, is relative to the services which households were previously afforded access. It was found that beneficiaries of housing located in close proximity to facilities and employment opportunities incur little or no cost in terms of travelling to facilities. Households with limited access to facilities have to be selective with regard to which member of the household can participate in activities offered in the broader settlement, as otherwise the costs of travel can be very onerous for households. The survey revealed that the opportunity to get a free house far outweighs any inconvenience associated with limited access to social and economic opportunities, with 100% of respondents indicating that they would choose a poorly located free house rather than a rented home in a better location with better access to facilities. In addition, within the context of the four settlements studied, it was found that travel expenses that would ordinarily have been incurred by households travelling to work and school has been found to be carried by employers or subsidised by government, and therefore have less of an impact on household expenditure than I had anticipated. For example, in Slangrivier 50% of the employed are collected for work by their employer and incur no costs for travelling to work. Similarly, the excessive distance travelled to schools, and its consequent burden of cost, is generally not carried by households, as the Department of Education subsidises the transportation of learners to and from school daily. It was found that the use of facilities is influenced by distance, cost, availability and, interestingly, personal preference. Although the provision of facilities across the four settlements is currently uneven, the municipality has created an expectation amongst the public that, over time, facilities will be provided in all settlements, irrespective of their location.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Open Access
    Responding to Climate Change in Small and Intermediate Cities: Comparative Policy Perspectives from India and South Africa
    (2021-02-23) Simon, David; Vora, Yutika; Sharma, Tarun; Smit, Warren
    Remarkably little is known about how small and intermediate urban centres tackle their various sustainability challenges, particularly climate and broader environmental change. Accordingly, we address this in the very different contexts of India and South Africa. We conceptualise the small and intermediate towns, and the policy challenges and priorities for mitigating and adapting to the effects of climate/environmental change that can enable transformative adaptations to changing conditions. Central issues are the divisions of powers, responsibilities and the fiscal capacity and independence of local authorities within the respective countries’ multi-level policy and governance frameworks. In India, various functions have been constitutionally devolved to city governments to enable them to govern themselves, while more strategic ones lie at state level. In South Africa, the divisions of power and responsibility vary by city size category. We compare the relevant city government functions in each country and how they can enable/disable policy responses to climate change. The relationship between their sustainable development strategies, plans, budgets, and actions are assessed and illustrated with particular reference to Thiruvananthapuram, Shimla and Bhubaneswar in India and Drakenstein, George and Stellenbosch in South Africa.
  • No Thumbnail Available
    Item
    Open Access
    ‘Sho't left': understanding the factors influencing public transportation mode choice with a focus on minibus taxis and MyCiTi in Dunoon, Cape Town
    (2025) Mogotsi, Dineo; Smit, Warren
    This research explores the factors influencing public transportation mode choice with a focus on minibus taxis and the MyCiTi bus rapid transit system in Dunoon, Cape Town. The research aims to understand the advantages and disadvantages of each mode. Despite the long-standing concerns about minibus taxi drivers' conduct, road safety, overloading, and vehicle conditions, minibus taxis remain a critical part of South Africa's public transportation system, serving approximately 15 million passengers daily. The research was conducted in Dunoon, a township in Cape Town in the Western Cape province. The study employed a qualitative data collection methodology involving semi structured interviews and participant observation. Thematic analysis, a technique for identifying and interpreting recurring themes within the data, was used to analyse the gathered data. Two theoretical frameworks, paratransit, and bus rapid transit guided the study's investigation. The study's findings indicate that affordability, accessibility, time, safety, and ease of use are all significant considerations for passengers. Minibus taxis emerged as the most popular mode of public transportation in Dunoon due to their speed, affordability, convenience, flexibility, social cohesion, and lack of viable alternatives. This contrasts with the MyCiTi bus service, which, despite its punctuality, lags minibus taxis in popularity due to longer travel times, route limitations, overcrowding, communication issues, and payment system glitches. The study concludes that a hybrid transport governance model, combining care-based and efficiency-driven values, such as social cohesion, offers the most sustainable approach for enhancing commuter journeys in Dunoon. Furthermore, the study suggests that the National Transport Survey should incorporate aspects such as social cohesion and accessibility to measure passenger satisfaction rather than solely focusing on aspects informed by scheduled formal transport. By acknowledging the socio-economic role of minibus taxis in urban transport ecosystems, this research contributes to the discourse on integrating paratransit services like minibus taxis into formal public transportation frameworks, ultimately supporting more inclusive and sustainable urban transport policies in African cities.