No abstract available. / Thesis (M.T.R.P.)-University of Natal, 2000.

The role of universities in contributing to the development of their host cities is a subject of ongoing scholarly debate. This is because the contemporary complex and competitive economic and technological global environment requires rapid adaptation to shifting opportunities and constraints in a global knowledge economy. Higher education has thus become an engine of development for cities and nations in the developing world. In line with this global trend, the South African government has thus mandated higher education institutions to play a more active role in addressing the development needs of the country. Within this context, this study therefore embarked on an appraisal of the University of Fort Hare’s (UFH) contribution to the development of its host city, East London in South Africa. The study employed a qualitative approach and used semi structured interviews as a primary data collection tool. The sampling technique was purposive sampling as the study targeted key respondents that had rich information about their departments and organisations. The study found that the university interacts with the city on a number of platforms and advisory boards established by some university departments. The main contribution was realised through relevant research carried out by academics in different departments within the city which informs developmental policy for the local government and contributes positively to the private sector. The University of Fort Hare also serves as a major labour supplier for both the public and private sector. The study however established that UFH is not producing technical graduates which are a critical skill in the private sector, specifically in the automotive industry which is the back bone of the city. This skills gap presents an opportunity for the university to expand its programmes so as to address the needs of private industry. In terms of policy, the study recommends the need for a convener or an intermediary to champion collaboration of the university with the city and the private sector.

Urban areas have become strategic locations where many throng to for a better life. However, wealth and economic opportunities are not evenly distributed in these urban spaces. South Africa is a fairly young democracy whose urban landscape has been largely shaped by the colonial apartheid system. The apartheid system segregated and relegated the black majority to the fringes of the cities into crowded communities characterised by poor living conditions, exclusion from the mainstream economy and limited urban amenities. Townships epitomise the harsh reality of the urban poor and how underdevelopment has been perpetuated. South Africa came up with different policies to redress the historical imbalances and inform urban development strategies. Urban renewal has been implemented as a development strategy in various cities across the world in an attempt to revive and improve the social, economic and environmental state of derelict urban spaces. Townships in South Africa have been the target areas for urban renewal with 8 presidential nodes having been initially identified for such in 2001. Eventually, Helenvale was added to the mix as a prime node in 2006 and the Helenvale Urban Renewal Project (HURP) was birthed - Helenvale and HURP being the identified site and project for this research respectively. An evaluative approach was adopted in assessing the socio-economic impact of urban renewal in South Africa townships and more specifically the socio-economic impact of HURP. Helenvale, like most townships in South Africa, is characterised by a high density settlement pattern, poverty, high unemployment, high rate of violence and crime, drug trade and substance abuse as well as a high rate of school dropouts. The Helenvale Urban Renewal Project (HURP) was implemented by the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality (NMBM) and eventually the Mandela Bay Development Agency (MBDA) with the intention to rejuvenate the community on the social, economic and environmental front. The study findings showed that Helenvale, like all urban renewal nodes in South Africa had a number of socio-economic issues which prompted HURP. These include high unemployment (was 53.5% in 2013); alarming levels of violence and crime; drug trade and substance abuse and high rate of school dropout. Between 2007 and 2014, different projects were implemented under HURP, focusing mainly on physical development and community building. Study respondents had mixed reactions and perceptions of the impact of HURP. On one hand, the project saw the community benefit from the constructed public facilities like recreational parks and resource centre as well as capacity development and created employment opportunities. On the other hand, unemployment has persisted with only a small proportion of the population benefiting from the created jobs; crime remains unabated; drug trade has persisted leaving parents fearing for their young and gang violence has rendered the provided safe public physical features ineffective and the housing challenge has also not been resolved. By and large urban renewal and in this particular study, HURP has made great strides in improving the social and economic standing of the township community despite the challenges that are still lurking. A number of recommendations were proposed for similar studies and for urban renewal initiatives in South Africa. For the latter the study recommended having a robust policy that speaks to urban renewal directly and informs such. Other propositions include allowing the community to own and be stewards of urban renewal initiatives; allocating enough resources, both human and financial; and tailoring the project to respond to the needs of a particular community and not a one size fits all approach. In terms of similar studies the study recommends using a mixed methods approach to evaluate the impact of such ventures as well as evaluating more than one urban renewal initiatives for comparison and to allow for the generalizability of the findings.

M.Tech. (Architectural Applied Design) / Please refer to full text to view abstract

M.A. / It has been proven that all over the world informal settlements have come about as a result of housing shortage. Housing crisis is directly associated with rapid population growth which in turn leads to rapid urbanisation. Rapid urbanisation which puts tremendous stress in infrastructure available in the cities, is a process which cannot be reversed or stopped. It needs to be managed by the city authorities. That also is problematic because cities do not always have the resources to cope with this demand. This thesis puts forward suggestions that could be used to alleviate the dilemma facing the Greater Johannesburg Metropolitan Council, with the cum of throwing light on how informal settlements can be dealt with in the changing economy of South Africa. In order to address the research problem and fulfil the research objectives, a literature study was done, which gave various strategies that have been adopted in other countries. The literature study has been largely used to compare South Africa with other countries such as Brazil, Peru, Kenya, etc. who are faced with rapid urbanisation. A historical overview of urbanisation in South Africa, beginning in the early twentieth century has been given. This was done to illustrate the evolution of the South African legal system in an attempt to cope with events emanating from the discovery of gold in the Johannesburg area. Attempts by the new government to support the local authorities, particularly the Greater Johannesburg Metropolitan Council have been acknowledged. For example, the establishment of the Development Facilitation Act, the Botshabelo. Accord, the repeal of laws which made it impossible for people to take control of their destinies, are a few of these attempts. The emphasis in this study a placed on the involvement of people as a management tool in the development process.

This study investigates the spatial planning of racial residential segregation in King William's Town, induding its former homeland township of Zwelitsha, from 1826 to 1991. The first settlement in the 'white' King William's Town, Brownlee Mission Station, was established in 1826.The town of King William's Town was developed from this settlement. The racial laws which were applied to segregate blacks nationally and locally came to an end in 1991. Primary sources of information were used to determine whether King William's Town was planned along racial lines and to determine the major role players who formulated and implemented the policy. Key sources were archival material, newspapers, maps, interviews, Deeds Office files and the work of other scholars. The establishment of the towm from its genesis as a mission station and a military base is traced and the effects of this legacy on racial separation is detailed. It was found that racial planning of residential areas in King William's Town had been practised in this small town for a long time (prior to the Group Areas Act). The implementation of this policy was marked by forced removal of blacks from areas which were regarded as being for whites. These predominently African concentrations on the east bank of the Buffalo River were relocated to the west bank which was regarded as a black area.An anomalous incident was discovered in this study namely that these racial removals took place before the central state introduced national policy which compelled all local states to plan their residential areas along ethnic considerations. In parallel with the practice of segregation in King William's Town, the township of Zwelitsha was developed adjacent to the town by the government. As this thesis reveals, the development of Zwelitsha was intimately related to that of King William's Town. The major role players in planning residential areas on racial basis were identified as the municipal Council of King William's Town. They were involved in planning racially segregated areas before and after the Group Areas Act. They (the Council) succeeded in closing all freehold locations in the town (1940) and forced the residents to become their tenants who rented dwellings in the west bank municipal location. There were attempts to incorporate this municipal location into the neighbouring homeland township of Zwelitsha. This move was eventually accomplished when all townships in the vicinity of King William's Town were amalgamated to form King William's Town Transitional Local Council in terms of the Local Government Transition Act of 1994 (Government Gazette No. 15468 of 2nd February 1994).

Ph.D. (Energy Studies) / The purpose of this research was to assess the influences of transport infrastructure on urban development and mobility in emerging megacities. The method is demonstrated using the Gauteng City-Region as a case study. The main criteria were to assess how past urban growth patterns have been influenced by the established transport infrastructure, to assess the transport energy implications of past trends and on this basis, develop land-use/transport scenarios that optimise space, transport accessibility and energy. The procedure involved a time-series analysis of Landsat satellite-derived land-use change at three decadal intervals (1991, 2001 and 2009), spatial analysis of corridor (ribbon/linear) development using a series of urban growth maps in conjunction with transport infrastructure, estimation of the transport energy implications of current and past urban structures and the development of possible urban land-use/transport scenarios. The land-use change and urban growth trends analysis was based on a method combining land-use/cover mapping of Landsat5 Thematic Mapper (TM) and Landsat7 Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus (ETM+) satellite imagery, supervised classification and post-classification. Effects of transport infrastructure on land-use development were assessed by analysing urban growth densities within buffer zones of major roads and railway stations, at 0.5 km intervals. To estimate the transport energy implications of current and past urban structures, satellite imagery derived urban growth data are combined with products of the Gauteng Transportation Study 2000 (GTS 2000) model developed on the EMME/2™ platform. Future land-use/transport scenarios are developed within the framework of critiqued urban growth models, success and failures stories in other city-regions, policy positions of the three spheres of Government and preceding results of this study...

The problem investigated by the researcher is that of alignment of the Integrated Development Plan of Amathole District Municipality with those of the selected local municipalities under its area of jurisdiction. The aim of the study was to investigate the extent to which there is or there is no alignment amongst these. The study articulated the background of municipal planning in terms of the provisions of enabling pieces of legislation. It further provided a conceptual and theoretical framework for integrated development planning within the local government sphere. The literature raised critical issues revolving around the importance of the district municipality in achieving congruence of development plans of the district and those of its local municipalities. The data was collected using a combination of qualitative and quantitative approaches, to realize the objectives of the research study. The methods used to collect data included, document study, interviews, observation, and questionnaires. The study findings showed that, there is a lot of planning efforts put into achieving alignment of the IDPs of the District and local municipalities under it. The study concluded that, with this good planning by the district municipality a correlating hands on support and monitoring by the municipal unit needs to be firmed up. The recommendations are an evidence that there are processes deliberately put in place by the District municipality to ensure alignment between the IDP of the District and those of its Local Municipalities.

Local government is at the forefront of engagement between the government and South Africa’s people, delivering basic services to communities. Following the transition to a democratic government in 1994, the country was demarcated in a manner that provides complete coverage by local government. Annually, managing the administration of service delivery implementation at local government level costs the country many billions. Much of the revenue used by local government in providing services is derived from income from sale of basic services and property rates, augmented by allocations from national and provincial government, equitably shared amongst municipalities. Local government has autonomy in its operations, but is strictly governed by a collection of cascading legislation, introduced to protect the interests of the people. The primary objective of the research was to investigate the efficacy of budget expenditure in local government, in particular the City of Cape Town as a metropolitan municipality. With an annual budget approaching R30 billion, the aim was to establish how the budget was determined and allocated to the service menu provided by the City, and to investigate whether better methods of allocating expenditure could be developed. A mixed research methodology was followed, relying on quantitative methods for analysing survey data statistically, while providing for detailed qualitative methods in interviewing and studying the specific case in detail. The theoretical perspective most suited to this research was found to be that of pragmatism, for its flexibility of interpretation, practicality and space for multiple perspectives. A constructivist epistemology was adopted to provide for the interplay between object and subject in constructing meaning. This research focused on examination of applicable legislation, secondary data in reports, and statistical analysis of opinion surveys of municipal officials involved in budgeting at different levels and interviews with key stakeholders. The findings indicate that budget allocation can be improved upon in a number of ways, despite complying with a myriad of restrictive and onerous regulations applicable to local government. It was found that the administration is fragmented in its operations and that the structure of necessity favours isolated service delivery rather than integration. Further, that compliance impacts negatively on time spent in planning and pursuit of strategic intent to the extent that Reporting often becomes a more important deliverable than basic services. The size of the City hinders common understanding, and introducing any change in political vision requires particular attention.

This study used integration as the overarching conceptual framework to investigate socio-spatial integration in post-apartheid South Africa. The study adopted the embedded case study design to investigate the spatial and social aspects of integration in former white residential suburbs in East London, South Africa. Recognising that integration occurred in different registers, this study used data from the South African Property Transfer Guide (SAPTG) database to investigate spatial-temporal integration in East London‟s residential suburbs from 1993 to 2008. A total of 21,683 residential property transfers were reviewed in 46 suburbs, and transfers to Blacks were identified. The residential property transfers were mapped to identify the nature of spatial integration. To investigate social integration, in-depth personal interviews were conducted on a purposively drawn sample of residents in the three case study suburbs of Southernwood, Cambridge and Gonubie. The interviews focused on three proxy indicators of social capital at neighbourhood level. The results of the study showed that post-apartheid spatial integration in East London closely followed the class-based residential template. Contrary to predictions prior to, and following apartheid‟s demise, the study showed that spatial integration occurred without racial conflicts. The study also found that social integration in the residential suburbs reflected the neighbourhood context and personal preferences, and was highly fluid. Although feelings of racial distance were evident, there were also indications of social cohesion, which were dynamic and uneven in time and space. Based on the data and the dialectical nature of spatial and social integration, the study concluded that fragmentation and integration are likely to continue coexisting in the South African city.