Includes abstract.~Includes bibliographical referencees (leaves 109-121). / The mainstreaming of disability in development programmes is an attractive but elusive goal for the South African state. This research investigates the ‘life of policy’ that creates the conditions for the targeting of disabled people as participants in Working for Water - a flagship public works programme.

Includes bibliographical references. / Research on poverty and food insecurity in sub-Saharan Africa has tended to focus on rural households and urban areas known to have concentrations of low-income households. However, consequences and effects of the recent global economic crisis such as retrenchment coupled with increasing food and fuel prices have played a major role in generating many newly poor households. The economic crisis came at a time when most developing countries were still struggling with impoverishment mainly caused by Structural Adjustment Programs (SAP). SAPs laid bare the acute vulnerability of the urban dwellers to the slightest addition al shock such as economic shocks or high food prices. In view of these effects, this study was conducted in Chingola in the Copperbelt Province of Zambia to examine the impact of economic shocks on the food security of middle class households in urban areas. Focusing on one aspect of the economic shock (retrenchments), the thesis shows how once middle class households in Chingola perceived, experienced and grappled with retrenchment in the context of increasing urban poverty and high food prices. The central thesis is that due to the rising pattern of urban risk, it is not only the rural or structural urban poor that are vulnerable to food insecurity but middle class urban households too. The study employed a mixed-method approach, which took place in two main sequential data collection phases - the quantitative component served as a basis for the sampling of cases for the qualitative component. The findings revealed that food security of the retrenched households was compromised by the economic crisis with approximately 7.4 % food secure, 4.2% mildly food insecure, 19 .1 % moderately food insecure and 69 .3 % severely food insecure. A compounding factor was that there were insufficient social protection services by government and NGOs to assist households to increase resilience to food insecurity. To survive, households employed close to thirty different strategies and tactics such as letting their houses, limiting their consumption and engaging in lucrative but unlawful activities - illegal mining, prostitution and theft. In light of these findings, the study makes a contribution to urban development and specifically to the emerging field of urban food security as it departs from the more traditional focus on the ‘old poor’ by giving specific attention to previously middle income households’ food security in the context of widespread economic shocks within the formal economy. Furthermore, it contributes to the debate on retrenchment literature by providing new information, for example, on how urban dwellers deal with shocks and the mechanisms used to help them survive in a globalised environment. Lastly, the study contributes to literature on the livelihoods of Copperbelt residents as very few scholars have explored the lives of the residents since the implementation of SAPs and the subsequent economic decline in the area.

Increased urbanization coupled with the effects of urban stream syndrome and urban informal settlements are degrading rivers and causing a decline in habitat integrity and the delivery of ecosystem services. There is a need to implement river restoration programmes to alleviate the negative impacts on stream ecosystems. This study aimed to determine the ability of a contaminated urban stream, draining Langrug, an informal settlement, to enrich the biodiversity of species and organisms, following a rehabilitation intervention. It was investigated how nature, in the form of biodiversity of diatoms and macro-invertebrates, were observed in the Stiebeuel River when a range of habitats were created and restored through the replanting of indigenous vegetation within the Stiebeuel River channel. The focus of the study is on understanding the value of different types of bio-assessment and water quality methodologies for informing the rehabilitation of a river system. It also illustrates how a combination of methods as opposed to a single method is able to inform the ecological integrity of habitat restoration.The results showed the current physical and biological condition of the Stiebeuel River to be heavily degraded, critically modified, with poor river health and an ecological category between D and E/F. The low DO levels and high EC levels are correlated to low SPI scores and high %PT scores, which infers that there is a significant amount of organic pollution and nutrients in the wastewater discharges from Langrug, informal settlement. The miniSASS scores link to the SPI scores, such that the low sensitivity and low SPI scores are attributed to the highly polluted water quality dictating the abundance of pollutant tolerance species. The inflow of highly polluted water from Langrug, informal settlement is responsible for driving the distribution of species in the Stiebeuel River. This highly contaminated water as a result restricted the success of the habitat intervention to enrich biological diversity and improve the ecological status of the Stiebeuel River. The results from the bio-assessment and water quality monitoring overlap and confirms the link between the three monitoring methods

Bibliography: pages 93-96. / Purpose of this report *to assess and evaluate the land use potential of the Black-Liesbeeck River Confluence Area based on the limitations imposed by the biophysical, social, economic and developmental factors operating in the area. *to make general recommendations on which types of land use activities are appropriate for the Confluence Area. Background The Interim Metropolitan Development Framework (IMDF) identifies intensification of existing residential and industrial areas~ as a possible solution to the current trend of urban sprawl in Greater Cape Town. Furthermore, this document states that intensification of existing urban areas should not occur at the expense of maintaining the green open spaces in the city. To achieve this aim a proactive, holistic and integrated approach to environmental planning will be required. This study presents the ideal opportunity to test this planning approach. The Confluence Area is unusual in that it contains large, unutilized open spaces that are surrounded by suburbs with medium to high residential densities. In addition, the Confluence Area is located near one of the largest business centres (the CBD-Salt River-Woodstock-Maitland-Epping-Ndabeni complex) in Greater Cape Town. This study forms part of a planning initiative underway in the Culemborg-Black River (CBR) Area that is adjacent to the northern boundary of the Confluence Area. The aim of this planning initiative undertaken by the Cape Town City Council (CCC) and South African Transport Services (SATS) is to investigate the land use potential of the CBR area. The findings of this study of the Confluence Area will be incorporated into the final planning proposals for the Culemborg-Black River Area.

Proponents of transfrontier conservation areas (TFCAs) make a number of claims in favour of this relatively new conservation strategy, one of which is that it leads to an increase in tourism. Despite the growing body of literature on the subject of TFCAs, very little research has been conducted on whether or not this assumption is true. This study therefore draws on and situates itself within this literature on TFCAs and the neoliberalisation of nature and seeks to test this claim through the use of the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park (KTP) as a case study. This is achieved firstly by assessing the changes in tourism development that have taken place both within the Park and in the area surrounding it as a result of the KTP's formation, and secondly by comparing the KTP's tourist levels prior to becoming a TFCA with those from after the TFCA was established, in order to determine what trends and changes have taken place as a result of this development. In doing so, this paper challenges the claim that TFCAs automatically lead to an increase in tourism and tourist development by showing that the link between the two is tenuous at best. It also broadens the scope of enquiry on the subject of TFCAs by analysing the relationship between TFCAs and the small scale, nature-based economic activities that take place around them, a matter which is largely ignored in the literature and, in doing so, critiques the assumption that all nature-based economic activities are part of a wider neoliberal agenda.