Browsing by Subject "Urban Infrastructure, Design and Management"

Now showing 1 - 4 of 4
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    A critical review of the housing policy and the State's intervention in mining towns in South Africa
    (2018) Manenzhe, Thiathu Darriyl; Cirolia, Liza
    Since 2012, there has been increasing government interest in mining towns. This interest was occasioned by the Marikana shooting. This interest, led by the presidency through Inter-ministerial Committee on the Revitalisation of Distressed Mining Towns and Communities has had impact on human settlements. This dissertation provides an overview of the Mining Towns Programme and its evolution, identify some of the major pitfalls and assumptions of the programme, and propose an alternative. It also provides and reflects a sustained critique of the approach of the state in the creation of human settlements and the provision of housing in mining towns. Furthermore, the dissertation attempts to assess the efficacy of human settlements approach to mining towns. In doing this, I argue that despite the increased interest, the approach adopted has fundamental weaknesses. These weaknesses range from the fundamental departure from the original intention and focus of the programme, the over-reliance on the existing but inappropriate human settlements delivery instruments and the ignorance of and the weakened role of local government in the programme. In its reliance on the existing human settlements delivery instruments, the implementation and delivery of houses has not addressed the problems faced by mineworkers. Moreover, the state has also overlooked the deep historical challenges of mining towns, both in terms of context and practice and this has undermined the effective implementation of the programme. There are also other institutional and socioeconomic problems associated with mining towns and this has not been properly assessed. The dissertation critically evaluates the approach and the shortcomings of the Mining Towns Programme against these challenges and posits some alternatives.
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    Housing for the poor: A case study of the Johannesburg inner city
    (2018) Robb, Carla; Hyman, Katherine
    This research focuses on the Johannesburg inner city, which is located in the Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality, Gauteng Province, South Africa. Johannesburg inner city has had a tumultuous history, from being the most economically powerful urban centres in Sub-Saharan Africa in the early 1900s, to falling into a state of disrepair from the 1980s, the inner city is now home to more than 300 000 households. The public sector and private sector both play a critical role in the delivery of affordable accommodation opportunities in the Johannesburg inner city, but the lack of formal supply of housing for the urban poor, specifically the “poorest of the poor” is stark. It is with this knowledge that this dissertation explores the commitment, from both public and private sector, to delivering accommodation options for the poorest of the poor in the inner city. The Johannesburg inner city has seen increased involvement from the private sector in the delivery of housing since 1994. Significantly, housing delivered by the private sector is accessible to the households in the income group referred to as the gap market. The lowest income group is left to resort to the informal sector to seek shelter. The lack of adequate housing supply for this group has given rise to illegal occupation of buildings, often run by slumlords with appalling living conditions. The public sector has many plans and strategies in place with identified mechanisms to assist in increasing the delivery of accommodation for this income group. However, there is still a massive gap in the delivery. Many plans and strategies have been put in place with the intention of addressing the housing demand in the inner city. Although many of these policies and strategies, created by the government, were intended to increase the delivery of affordable rental accommodation, what is obvious is the lack of delivery. This dissertation, therefore, intends to determine why there has been no formal provision made for the lowest income group in the Johannesburg inner city and, if there are plans or mechanisms in place to rectify this, why they have not come to fruition. The City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality has been criticised for not responding to the emergency accommodation cases seriously and creating realistic strategies to deal with the poorest income group or destitute. There is a lack of a programmatic approach to meet the housing demand, which is evident from the number of bad buildings in the Johannesburg inner city. Without a realistic strategy to assist this income bracket, a domino effect of failure seems to plague housing delivery in the inner city. A lack of opportunities for this income group gives rise to bad buildings, which in turn affects the livelihood of the people in the inner city, across all sectors.
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    Stakeholder Engagement and Conflicting Discourses in Urban Policy in the Two Rivers Urban Park, Cape Town: An Argumentative Discourse Analysis
    (2018) Scott, Charlotte; Vanderschuren, Marianne
    Public participation has the potential to either enhance urban development outcomes or entrench disagreement and frustration. A major challenge for policy-makers is how to understand and then respond to the narratives, metaphors and arguments contributed by stakeholders. In analysing the public participation process for the Two Rivers Urban Park (TRUP) in Cape Town, this research applies argumentative discourse analysis to capture and analyse multiple dimensions of stakeholder contributions. Arguments, and other linguistic features, were linked to themes distilled from the data. Associating and matching these themes to stakeholder groups identified discourse coalitions. The analysis supports the claim that the development of TRUP involves more than merely a technical discussion. The metaphors, stories and arguments used by participants to discuss the development of TRUP refer to it as an emblematic issue for the development of the city, its history, the history of South Africa and globalisation across the world. The discourse coalitions identified illuminate diverging ideas of how cities ought to respond to the environment, the private sector and residents. Without this knowledge government cannot hope to respond to stakeholders in a manner they will find satisfactory.
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    The role of professionals in partnership-based urban upgrading interventions
    (2018) Malan, Johanna; Van Ryneveld, Mark; Brown-Luthango, Mercy
    In South Africa, current urban planning models and traditional state-led urban interventions seem to have noticeably failed to sustainably address the integrated problems that are evident in informal settlements throughout the country. In the case of many current urban interventions, professionals give technocratic solutions to problems in informal communities with little to no consultation or engagement with the affected community. The result is often that community's needs are not sufficiently met and the community is not capacitated to take full ownership of the solution. More often than not the intervention (technocratic solution) becomes mismanaged, underutilised and inevitably the solution is proven to be unsustainable. This phenomenon has highlighted the need for a new approach to addressing the needs of informal settlement dwellers. In recognition of the need for a new approach, this case study of a partnership-based urban upgrading intervention is conducted in order to make realistic recommendations regarding the value of professionals in partnership-based urban upgrading interventions as opposed to top-down interventions. The primary research question of this case study is thus: what lessons can be learnt about the role of the professional in partnership-based urban upgrading interventions by gaining insight on a successful partnership-based intervention? The Genius of SPACE (GOS) partnership, based in the informal settlement of Langrug in the Stellenbosch Municipality is used as the topic of the case study to answer the research question. The GOS partnership was initially formed to address greywater management and stormwater drainage challenges in the settlement. A capability analysis approach is utilised as a theoretical tool to investigate all of the different assets which might be available to the professional to contribute to addressing the social as well as the technical challenges that the GOS partnership aims to address. This tool ultimately contributes to the development of clear guiding principles for technical professionals working in urban upgrading partnerships. Some key guidelines for technical professionals in partnerships emerge from the case study and clearly show that a developmentally aligned partnership should ultimately be able to utilise not only technical abilities and skills but also social expertise to facilitate community mobilisation strategies that allow for highly responsive upgrading processes to ensure long-lasting structural as well as social change.