Bibliography: leaves 110-120. / Over time, the lack of coherent thought concerning the potential roles of urban open spaces has resulted in the necessity of urban management to become vigilant with regard to the collective aspects of city life. Urban open spaces are especially significant in this regard. In giving attention to the scale, continuity, distribution and status of public open space in Cape Town and indeed, in all South African urban centres, developing the role of public spaces in the lives of the urban poor is especially crucial. This study examines the concept of the ability of multifunctional urban open space in playing the role of a socio-economic developmental tool. In this endeavour, two fundamental approaches are used. The first investigates the significance of open space and examines the history of open space and park development. Cases of successful park developments are presented so as to identify central conceptual ideas and certain key success factors. The second uses a local park proposal, the Cape Flats Urban Park, as an instrument with which to explore the concept. This involves integrating the notions of natural process needs and human needs so as to inform use. Accordingly, a natural systems analysis discovers the particular ecological needs of the area through factors of opportunity and constraint and a potential park user analysis discovers the characteristics and needs of human users, in order to discern what role the urban park could play in enabling socio-economic development and improving quality of life. Consequently, resultant guidelines for planning successful multifunctional open spaces are summarised, and further considerations and guiding principles for multifunctional open space planning are presented. These insights are applied and determine broad distributional tendencies, which may assist towards the creation of a successful plan for the Cape Flats Urban Park and other open spaces. The procedure in which these investigations were followed through was primarily through an extensive literature survey, supplemented by personal observation, map surveys and informal interviews. The findings of this study endorse the proposal for a multifunctional Cape Flats Urban Park, as this park could play conservation, resource preservation, flood control, productive, economic, ceremonial, cultural, educational, health improving, recreational and community-building roles. As such, urban open spaces have the potential to become multifaceted resources, with both intangible and tangible benefits for nature and for people, all of which can improve the quality of life for city dwellers, by improving the quality of the environment in which they live.

After nearly two decades of democracy, South African cities remain inequitable, exclusionary and spatially inefficient. This dissertation argues that the adaption of the principles of modernism by apartheid spatial planning has resulted in the formation of settlements that are characterised by sprawl, separation and fragmentation. Using Cape Town as a study, it can be demonstrated that the urban form and structure of South African cities has been affected by urbanisation and in-migration furthermore increasing levels of poverty and unemployment have had significant social, environmental and financial consequences. Therefore, in order to challenge conventional development models in the city and to achieve inclusive growth, this dissertation makes a case for urban corridor intensification in Cape Town. By working across a number of site scales, from metropolitan to precinct scale, this dissertation presents a development framework for the Voortrekker Road Corridor. This framework argues for the intensification of the "economic backbone" of the metropolitan to spatially restructure the city's inefficient and inequitable form. This framework proposes that the spatial intensification of the Voortrekker Road Corridor will improve integration and equitable access to economic and social opportunities throughout the city. Therefore, this dissertation establishes a framework to enable choice, opportunity and spatial equity in Cape Town.

Post-apartheid Cape Town is characterized largely by a sprawling and inequitable city form. Well-located land within the city tends to be expensive, and as a result the majority of poor residents have to travel long and time-consuming distances to employment opportunities, often spending close to half their monthly income on commuting. Current development patterns largely perpetuate this situation. Whilst non-motorized transport (NMT) often presents as a potentially equitable and efficient form of mobility, the context of long distance commuting coupled with a lack of NMT-specific connected infrastructure within metropolitan Cape Town is not conducive to NMT. The challenges and corresponding Interventions required to enable wellfunctioning NMT within cities broadly, and within the City of Cape Town in particular were explored through a variety of literature drawing on precedent from around the world, a review of NMT-related policy, and interviews with city officials and NGOs involved in promoting NMT. These challenges and interventions were then investigated in a particular context, namely the 'Northern inner' district of Cape Town, whereafter specific interventions were proposed. Key findings regarding the implementation of well-functioning NMT (and cycling in particular) indicate that there are a number of interconnected factors that need to be considered beyond the provision of NMT-specific infrastructure. At the metropolitan level, by developing high-density affordable housing opportunities in well-located areas, more compact environments with increased proximity between origins and destinations can be created. Such environments are far better suited to NMT. This can in turn begin to address the inequitable and inefficient current city form. NMT-specific infrastructure is of course very important in all NMT-enabling development (and particularly for cycling), and as such the equitable provision of NMT-prioritized intersections, paths and lanes in relation to infrastructure for motorized transport are very important. Finally, intermodal linkages between NMT and public transport, crime reduction through strategic placement and design of NMT infrastructure, and promotion of visibility and awareness of the value of NMT through public awareness campaigns constitute broader required interventions to enable well-functioning NMT. Regarding implementation, given the multiple interconnected factors involved in creating well-functioning NMT, it is important that the proposed interventions take place simultaneously, through an integrated inter-departmental approach.

The Land Restitution Act 22 of 1994 affords historically dispossessed person to return areas from which they were forcibly removed. With a focus on urban restitution this dissertation looks at why the restitution of land in District Six has been slow and fraught with frustrations and delays. This dissertation assess the participatory planning processes in the restitution and redevelopment of land in order to gain nuanced and deeper understanding of why, the state's ideal of restorative justice has not been realised. Through a qualitative research approach, the study focuses on the case of District Six, studying the spaces of participation from 1994 -2013. Findings reveal that many want a stake in District Six, none more so than the community themselves. The findings reveal how state-led spaces of participation remain tokenistic in nature and on the other hand community led spaces of participation offers historically marginalised groups an opportunity to realise their rights. Recommendations are aimed at how planners can intervene to improve these spaces and contribute to making more inclusionary spaces.

South African cities, similarly to other cities across the Global South, experience high levels of food insecurity. Urban food insecurity is particularly prevalent in lowincome households, with 72% of households in low-income urban areas in Cape Town identified as food insecure in a 2013 African Food Security Network survey. In the context of rising urbanisation, poverty, and unemployment levels this issue is expected to increase into the future in the absence of proactive intervention. Despite the severity of the issue, urban food insecurity continues to be largely neglected by planners and policymakers. This invisibility can be attributed mainly to the persistence of the popular conceptualisation of food insecurity as an issue of production, resulting in a focus on increased rural food production and urban agriculture as the panacea for food insecurity. This limited rural and productionist framing has resulted in a persistent neglect of the dimensions of access in food security, specifically in urban settings. This neglect has included the invisibility of the contribution that informal trade makes to urban food security through supporting access to food. Through the case study of the Bellville Station Precinct in Cape Town, I argue that informal food traders are playing a crucial role in supporting urban food security through enabling greater access to food for economically stressed urban residents. This argument is made through the exploration of the extent that these traders are using various entitlement enhancing strategies that support physical and economic access as well as access to viable food options that cater to food preferences. Based on the understanding and acknowledgement that informal food traders, in this case, are supporting access to food for economically stressed users of the space, I then explore the role that spatial planning should play in leveraging this contribution. This is done through exploring the myriad of challenges faced by the traders currently in making this important contribution, and specifically through highlighting how this role has been undermined by the way the City has interacted with, intervened in and managed the space. While the research reveals a reality where traders currently face a myriad of compounding and growing challenges, I argue that a different path is possible. This path necessitates spatial planners acknowledging and valuing the contribution of informal trade to urban food access as the basis for taking responsibility for protecting, supporting and maximising it. This is explored through a three-pronged supportive planning proposal for the precinct. Firstly, this proposal includes necessary legislative and institutional changes. Secondly, it provides a spatial design concept for how food trade could be spatially priorotised as the precinct develops through the provision of a system of supportive infrastructure. Lastly, the proposal outlines a transition to a form of management that is grounded in collaboration and facilitation through the gradual rebuilding of trust between stakeholders. In this way, this dissertation provides an indication of the form that context-specific food sensitive panning could take in the case of the Bellville Station Precinct.

Includes bibliographical references. / This study explores how community participation contributes to the success of a local environmental sustainability project. In order to avoid approaching sustainability and community participation using the “silo approach,” I established an integrated framework of community participation and sustainability based on a review of relevant literature. I established assessment criteria and analysed the Green Living DC case study against these criteria in order to answer my primary and secondary research questions. As a case study, Green Living DC uses community participation to complete environmental sustainability projects. Primarily, I used the case study methods research to address theories in practice. I collected secondary quantitative data about the community demographics and local environmental quality. I collected qualitative data about local environmental sustainability projects though semi-structured individual interviews with members of Green Living DC. I put forth recommendations based on a synthesis of the research findings with the theoretical framework of sustainability and community participation. My research findings indicate that community participation should be a requirement of environmental sustainability projects. Although no two projects are exactly the same, optimum participation should be decided on within each project framework. Communities should define their own idea of “success,” suitable for their specific context. I also put forth recommendations for NGOs implementing environmental sustainability projects. Ultimately, NGOs can benefit and serve to bridge the gap between local government and citizens in implementing environmental sustainability projects.

Includes bibliographical references. / This paper investigates the night-time economy (NTE) present in Cape Town, focusing on Long Street as its spatialized case, to ascertain the credibility of it becoming a 24 hour (24-h) city. A diverse and vibrant NTE is seen as the foundation of a 24-h city which is inclusive of the broader community. The concept, originally developed in the United Kingdom (UK) as the 24-h planning policy-package, sought to create active city centres at night by embracing a neoliberal approach to managing the NTE. This package revolved around getting people into the city centre at night, as well as promoting their participation in the NTE. This was meant to be achieved by the deregulation of liquor laws and some amendment of municipal by-laws. However, the policy-package had the opposite effect, and resulted in the proliferation of youthful adults engaged in acts of transgression and anti-social behaviours. Consequently, the broader community was driven away from city centres at night as they became designated spaces of ‘patterned liminality' -- when social order dissolved and transgressions were normalised. The research, conducted using a case study method, is comprised of primary and secondary data. This includes evidence from 16 interviews, a photo essay, and infield observations which together indicate that there are distinct parallels between the alcohol-fuelled and youth-dominated NTEs in the UK and the NTE found in Long Street. The research concludes that Long Street has become a space of ‘patterned liminality' where anti-social behaviour is acted out, resulting in an exclusionary effect for the broader community. In light of this evidence Cape Town can make no claim to be a true 24-h city. The dissertation concludes by suggesting recommendations aimed at creating a more inclusive NTE aligned with the 24-h city ideals. These include: temporary pedestrianisation, the extension of retail trading hours, amendment the Western Cape Liquor Act of 2008 to include a saturation point for liquor licences in a specified area, investigation of the feasibility of a night market, promotion of cultural events not centred around drinking, and ensuring that Long Street is a well-lit space at night.

Includes bibliographical references. / Climate change is now widely seen as a major challenge of this time and the future of cities. However, the most vulnerable will be the urban poor particularly those located on the urban fringes in high risk areas with limited access to basic services and economic opportunities. In South Africa, although progress has been made to reduce socio-economic and environmental challenges created by apartheid legislations, inequalities still exist where the privileged live in safer and well located and serviced parts of the city while he poor are still located in settlements created by apartheid in urban fringes. Spatial Planning presents an opportunity to increase resilience to climate change in vulnerable areas of cities. Through integrating planning and climate adaptation actions, future spatial decisions will add to resilience to climate change and enhance wellbeing of people. The dissertation includes a case study that was conducted to learn about the status quo of the study area to effectively recommend relevant interventions that seek to create resilience to climate change in the area. A local area adaptation plan was then formulated including the framework for implementing proposed interventions in a 20 year timeframe.

Includes bibliographical references / The dissertation explores the interplay between government, informal street traders and the public in and around the Congolenses marketplace in Luanda, Angola. The nation was ravaged by 27 years of civil war until 2002. During this time, most of the city made use of extensive systems of informal provisioning to survive. Since the end of the war, the government has undertaken a high degree of spatial and social reordering with wide ranging consequences for those who inhabit the city, especially within the informal economy. Most previous research focusing on the informal economy, or government policy in Luanda has taken sectoral and city wide approaches. As such, the opportunity to explore the effects and manifestations of policy on informality in a site specific context presents itself. The Congolenses market is a key point in the city where interplay between informality, the public and government has taken place. This dissertation examines the various spatial constituents of Congolenses, reviews its situation within the context of greater Luanda, and discusses the role which informal trade has and continues to play in the city. Furthermore, in investigating the relationship between informal traders and the government's stance towards them, perspectives were drawn from three focal areas: The lived realities of traders in the area through in depth interviews, the perceptions of and ways in which the area is used by pedestrians through surveys, and how the Angolan government has interacted with them through media scans, observations and key literatures. It was found that planning mechanisms, including spatial, legal, and policy should be employed as critical interventions for the creation of an inclusive space to the advantage of all users of the market. Finally, a spatial concept was produced, suggesting improved land uses, and physical infrastructural interventions in the area and provides the view that a change in the current perspective of the Angolan government would be of benefit to informal traders and the Angolan economy.

Cissie Gool was an extraordinary presence on Cape Town's political and social scene in the first half of the twentieth century. She was the first black woman to preside over a national liberatory organisation, the National Liberation League (1935), and the Non-European United Front (1938). She was the only black woman to be elected to the Cape Town City Council before 1994, where she served for 25 years. She was the first black woman to obtain a Master's Degree in Psychology at the University of Cape Town, where she studied on and off from 1918 to the year of her death, 1963. In 1962 she graduated with a BA (LLB), and was the first black woman to be invited to the Cape Bar. This thesis explores the childhood and early life of Cissie Gool. I examine influences on her political development before she became the leader of the National Liberation League in 1935. This period of her life has left few material traces. Methodologically, this thesis confronts a challenge facing those who wish to discover hidden lives in the South African past. I argue that it is possible to trace influences on such a life if one shifts the lens through which one conducts historical research. Working with a paucity of sources, where most of the people who knew Cissie Gool as a young person are deceased, this thesis searches for and highlights key influences on Gool's early personal-political development. The thesis rests on a number of premises rooted in feminist theory. I begin from the position that 'the personal is political' and take seriously the argument that the family is a key engine of historical process. I take issue with the statement in much of the secondary literature that Cissie Gool was (merely) 'the younger daughter of Dr Abdurahman', which obscures the fact that this relationship was embedded in a family, in which Cissie's mother was at least as important as her father, and where being a younger daughter with an older sister was significant too. While recognising the significance of the fact that Cissie Gool was fathered by Dr Abdurahman, I underline the centrality of women in a patriarchal society where early socialisation is the specific task of women, and where women and girls experience some degree of social segregation from men and boys. In addition to focusing the lens on family dynamics, I trace sometimes tenuous but nevertheless, real threads linking Cissie Gool to particular political circles on the left in Cape Town in the 1920s and 1930s. I suggest that the leftist heterodoxy which characterised the mature Cissie Gool may be linked to a kindred political spirit among some of her early acquaintances, specifically those at the University of Cape Town, counterposed with the more rigid orthodoxies of friends of the Communist Party on the one hand, and on the other, the so-called Trotskyite purists with whom she was linked by marriage. Cissie Gool, may have been unique in her involvement in all three circles, which intersected at socials hosted by herself and her husband, Dr A H Gool. The androcentricity of both the secondary literature and contemporary documentary sources obscures the specifics of Cissie Gool's political development in this period. Nevertheless, this thesis is based on the premise that, in the absence of more concrete sources, an exploration of the various political circles with which Cissie Gool was associated, in the wider political and socio-economic context of 1920s and 1930s Cape Town, permits one to gain insight into key influences on the political development of Cissie Gool.