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.

The development of infrastructure in our country is seen as key to eliminating poverty and reducing inequality. This is confirmed by the establishment of the Presidential Infrastructure Coordinating Council who will coordinate the implementation of the 18 Strategic Infrastructure Projects as part of government's programme. For this infrastructure development programme to be successful, competent engineering professionals are needed. The engineering industry is currently in crisis due mainly to the effect the current public sector procurement system has had on it. The procuring of consulting engineering services is currently done primarily by competitive tendering where price is the deciding factor in the award of tenders. Tenders are evaluated solely on the basis of price and Broad Based Black Economic Empowerment requirements (also known as preference requirements). The criteria for expertise, experience and capacity are only used as qualifying criteria after which price and preference are used for the evaluation. This process is irrespective of the scale of the project or the skills required. The processes are governed by legislation such as the Public Finance Management Act, Preferential Procurement Policy Framework Act and the Municipal Finance Management Act. All public sector institutions and public entities are therefore governed by this and must ensure compliance. There has however been an acknowledgement on the part of government that the current system needs to be reviewed. National Treasury published the Public Sector Supply Chain Management Review in February 2015. This frank look at the current Supply Chain Management system highlighted the shortfalls and what is required to be done to improve the system. The important acknowledgement out of this review is that construction procurement is different to normal procurement and different systems should apply. Despite the initiatives launched by government the current procurement system for consulting engineering services remains unchanged and primarily price driven. Respondents in the private and public sectors were surveyed for their views on the current state of procurement. From the research it is clear that respondents both in the private and public sectors indicate that competition based on price should be changed. Due to low fees tendered consultants no longer have the luxury of seconding senior experienced staff to projects for extended periods of time. Training, development and mentoring of graduate staff has also become less and firms have limited ability to reinvest for growth. Public sector clients' perceptions also indicate that consultants' quality of service has deteriorated. In order to arrest the current situation the study recommends that clarity be sought on the relevant sections of the constitution dealing with procurement. Once this is achieved the National Treasury and the National Department of Trade and Industry should be engaged to get the applicable legislation amended to accommodate a quality and cost based selection system and that takes into account the scale and complexity of projects. This will lead to consultants getting paid fees commensurate with the effort required to execute projects thereby allowing consultants to reinvest in their businesses that will ensure its longevity. This will contribute positively to the infrastructure development required to eliminate poverty, reduce inequality and grow the economy.

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.

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.

The objective of this study was to evaluate water conservation and water demand management in an industrialised City of uMhlathuze in Richards Bay. The City of uMhlathuze Local Municipality is the third-largest municipality in KwaZulu Natal (KZN) and is strategically placed to continue attracting investment as an aspirant metropolis due to the newly established Industrial Development Zone (IDZ) and the country's largest deep-water port. As an industrialised city, uMhlathuze's demand for water is already increasing and with the establishment of the IDZ, it is expected that water demand will escalate even further once the IDZ is fully operational. In line with the research question, this study has, therefore, sought to understand whether the industrialised City of uMhlathuze has developed and effectively implemented a water conservation and water demand management strategy and interventions in order to sustain water supply in anticipation of growing demand due to industrialisation and population growth. This objective was achieved by evaluating the city's current interventions and measures using a range of water conservation and water demand management solutions and guidelines. During this study, it was evident that the greatest threat facing South Africa's ambitious future economic growth, poverty alleviation and government's transformation agenda was the inefficient and unbalanced use of available and limited water resources. Thus, in order to avoid this imminent threat, the country as a whole must continuously reduce water consumption and demand from various sectors. This goal can be achieved through sustainable and improved water conservation and water demand management interventions. The study found that, in recent years, the issue of water scarcity had escalated in KZN. The province was in the grip of a drought, which was taking its toll on water supply in various municipalities around the province. The sparse rainfall in most parts of the province had caused the levels of rivers and dams to decrease to a point of crisis. Consequently, the KZN Provincial Government declared the province a disaster area in 2015. During the study, there was very little improvement as the City of uMhlathuze was still subjected to level 4 water restrictions. Evidently, the drought was intensifying the water problem in a municipality already grappling with poor and inadequate water infrastructure. A review of international and local literature was undertaken to theoretically position the objective of the research. An evaluation of the City of uMhlathuze water conservation and water demand management strategy and interventions was conducted using a questionnaire completed by city officials and part of the study included documentation review. This study investigated key elements of water conservation and demand management as well as interventions that were pertinent to achieving the desired outcome of efficient use of water. Respondents were required to answer questions focusing on several water conservation and water demand management related approaches and solutions. During the study, it was identified that there were inconsistencies in the implementation of water conservation and water demand management interventions even though the City of uMhlathuze had already taken the important step of developing a water conservation and water demand management strategy. It was recognised, however, that water conservation and water demand management remained relatively new for most municipalities. Consequently, it would take time for municipalities, together with communities, to implement effective interventions. The focus needs to be on the establishment of a combined team of staff and stakeholders, set up to finding solutions and interventions designed to maximise the most sustainable and efficient use of water. The conclusions drawn from this study and proposed recommendations indicated that wastewater reuse; pipe replacement; water pressure management; rainwater and stormwater harvesting; water sensitive urban design; leak detection and repair; joint planning and research team with the Industrial Development Zone; groundwater and aquifer recharge; stakeholder engagement, education and citizen awareness are feasible options for the City of uMhlathuze to consider in relation to water conservation and water demand management. These solutions should constitute the foundation of a revised and updated water conservation and water demand management strategy to be implemented incrementally with broad-based participation.

Cape Town is experiencing its worst drought in recorded history. Notwithstanding that the Western Cape has always been a water scarce region, it is this current drought that has brought home the area’s inherent vulnerability and highlighted the governance issues. The world wherein South Africa’s water governance was created is very different to the world we find ourselves in today. It is a world of uncertainty and unpredictability not contemplated in water governance comprised of legislation, policy, guidelines and practice. The current water governance constructs a conventional approach based upon predictability and certainty and is no longer appropriate to meet today’s new challenges. Consistent with this conventional approach, Cape Town’s municipal water supply is almost completely dependent upon surface water which makes it even more vulnerable to drought than if its supply was comprised of a variety of water supply options. With surface water sources fully exploited and storage opportunities within the urban edge limited alternative water supply options must be more seriously considered and the water governance reformed to accommodate its use. Water governance is the focus of reform because it is the framework for infrastructure planning and therefore controls the resultant system, infrastructure and management. This thesis interrogates the current water governance as the starting point before firstly discussing the proposed incremental approach towards a decentralised, hybrid system for water infrastructure and secondly, identifying specific areas where intervention is necessary for implementation.

This study was carried out in the city of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, in June 2018. Its main objective was to investigate how the current DART services are delivered with a view of improving urban transport in the city of Dar as Salaam. In all, 260 city residents using DART services were interviewed on their perception of the quality of services on offer. The respondents were selected using the convenience sampling method. A structured questionnaire was used to collect data. The study findings show that the majority of DART users are generally satisfied with services provided. About 96.9 per cent of the interviewed passengers consider continuing using DART services. Service quality attributes, which were perceived with high levels of satisfaction, include security at stations (perceived as adequate by 33.6 per cent and average by 57.8 per cent of interviewed passengers). Another is travel time (88.3 per cent of the passengers were satisfied with the travel time) and shelter (perceived as adequate by 49.6 per cent and average by 38 per cent of the passengers interviewed). The fares charged were reported as affordable by 72.7 per cent of the passengers. Breakdown of buses was reported as a rare occurrence. Critical shortfall perceived by the passengers includes discomfort on the buses due to overcrowding which is a result of too few buses in operation. To reduce congestion, passengers suggested that the number of buses offering the services should be increased. Some 56.8 per cent of the passengers indicated to have failed to arrive at their respective destinations within the planned time. To address this, passengers suggested that timetables should be provided to enable them to plan their journeys and thus arrive within the planned time. Other challenges the passengers faced while using DART services include lack of service when it rains heavily, long queues at ticket booths, and scrambling in the process of boarding the buses. The study findings have not shown a difference in the levels of satisfaction between male and female passengers. Significant difference in the levels of satisfaction has been observed among passengers aged above 45 years in relation to comfort on the buses and the arrival time. Furthermore, the study found that the public was not invited to contribute views on the project. Thus, the public should be invited to contribute their opinions when undertaking future phases of DART. In addition, the current phase of DART should be improved by considering the passengers’ opinions as established by this study.

This dissertation utilizes a case study of Maboneng in Johannesburg central business district (CBD) to make a case for culture-led urban regeneration in South Africa. The City of Johannesburg is still to a large extent locked into Apartheid-era spatial planning whereby most neighbourhoods' reflect the Group Areas Act's racial profiles of the past. Given this historical context, a more nuanced approach to culture-led regeneration is required in assessing the complexity of urban regeneration in South Africa. This dissertation analyses to what extend Maboneng has undergone a process of culture-led urban regeneration, examining the transformation in terms of social, physical and economic outcomes. It also seeks to uncover to what extend the case of Maboneng aligns with global literature- and to what extent it departs? Chapter 2 introduces the research method, which is case study based, and relies on Propertuity company data for the purposes of this paper, which is outlined as a gap that could be addressed in a future study of the area. Chapter 3 defines culture-led urban regeneration and focuses on a literature review, with Florida's (2002) creative class theory at the core of the discussion around urban regeneration, which is critiqued by Peck (2007) who believes it leads to further prioritization of the middle class at the expense of the poor. Moulaert, Demuynck & Nussbaumer (2004) suggest a nuanced perspective to culture-led urban regeneration that adopts a socially-rooted view which values the multi dimensional role of culture in urban development. The case of Maboneng uses this nuanced perspective from the literature as a framework to categorise the data in chapter 4, and analyse the data in chapter 5, using the three dimensions of urban regeneration (namely social, physical and economic transformation) in order to assess the culture-led urban regeneration in Maboneng. The findings highlight that Maboneng is socially-rooted in its approach to both the social and economic transformations that are occurring in the neighborhood with success in the establishment of a mixed-race neighbourhood that is reflective of the City of Johannesburg racial profiles, as well as the establishment of a local economy. It is argued that more could be done to ensure the physical dimensions and aesthetics of place that are less 'curated' by the property developer and more focused on cocreation of aesthetics.

Kampala is Uganda's capital city and is one the fastest growing cities in the world. Over 60% of the city's urban population live and work informally. In 2002, the Ugandan Minister of Lands, Housing and Urban Development attended the World Urban Forum in Kenya, where he met with the international president of Slum/Shack Dwellers International (SDI), Jockin Arputham. The Minister requested the support of SDI to mobilise the residents of Kampala for settlement upgrading. Following this invitation, the SDI president, with Federation members from South Africa and India, visited Kampala. This visit resulted in the signing of an agreement to enable community residents and the state to jointly improve the living conditions of people in informal settlements in Kampala. This marked the beginning of a new form of state-society relations, called co-production. These relations have grown, evolved and progressively matured over the years. This evolutionary case study asks how co-production engagements in the City of Kampala provide empirical support for an enhanced theoretical framework in planning which contributes to ideas of state-society engagement in the cities of the global South. Drawing on poststructuralist theory and cases of co-production, a conceptual framework provides the theoretical basis to examine how service delivery and city planning under co-production are shaped by power and rationalities that occur at the interface between state and society. This study draws on key proponents of the case study method. Primary data and information were collected, using semi-structured interviews. Document analysis and observations were used to supplement the interview processes and data. The findings were analysed and then used to engage with the theoretical materials in order to write back to theory and then generate theoretical prepositions on planning theory and co-production as an interventive planning framework. Key findings show that communities and civic groups used tools of enumerations, exchange visits and savings to assert their claims and demands, as well as to advance and secure their survival assets and systems. The study reveals complex multifaceted and dynamic power struggles and matrixes within and between structures of the state in the implementation of various co-production initiatives and relations. The state displays and relies on incoherent legal and policy positions, acts informally and operates between old and new ways of engaging with communities. The study further reveals tension points, reversals and the 'holding back' of state power during encounters of state, networked and multiple community power bases that have strong and influential claims to urban space, materialities such as land, trading spaces, informal livelihood systems, place and belonging. The narratives show that community is segmented and conflicted, with individuals and civic groups straddling the divide between state and societal spaces. The combination of organised community resistance and collaboration led to 'quiet encroachment' to shift state positions on development regulations and to disrupt and refine states' schemes of community intervention to become open and more inclusive. The conflicting rationalities and deep differences between state agents and communities extend beyond the binary of state and 'community'. The narratives reveal the fragmented nature of the state - formal and informal - and the divisions within and between society and civic groups characterised by the politics of control of space and territoriality, differentiation and belonging. The case study engages with theory to provide an important caution against the limitations of assuming that planning can adopt consensualist processes in the cities of the South. It suggests that co-production offers a more productive and realistic way of approaching state-society engagement in planning, but is also fraught with difficulties that are also present in the wider context within which engagement occurs. Therefore, this thesis also argues that planning in the South should be seen as both a collaborative and conflicted process. In addition, it postulates that there is nothing peaceful about urban life, and that power and conflict are ubiquitous elements that both produce and are a product of the interface between state and society.

The industrial economy of the last 100 years has resulted in significant externalities, chief of which has been anthropogenic climate change caused by the release of greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere. The green economy is an approach to economic activity that has been developed in an effort to mitigate against this and attempt to shift the world economy onto a more sustainable course. South Africa has a particularly carbon-intense economy, and as such bears a considerable burden to follow this shift. Cape Town, following the lead of national government, has begun to respond to climate change and has made steps to adopt the green economy. However, much of the literature and theory developed around the green economy has been produced by developed nations, which may render it problematic to be adopted by a city in a developing nation, such as Cape Town. This dissertation begins with a brief description of the background and definition of the green economy. Based on a reading of the international literature, it then uses an analytical overview of conceptual descriptions of the green economy to develop a Transition Framework as a tool for evaluation and comparison. The Transition Framework is then applied to the green economy in the city of Cape Town as a case study. While the City of Cape Town quite overtly applies international conceptions of the green economy to its formulation, it was found that there were some significant local deviations: political parties play an important role in leading and shaping the local green economy; there is a particular need to balance green economy interventions against the preservation of municipal income from tax; the city's spatial-geographic character plays an important role in strategy and planning; and the primary aim of the local green economy is to increase economic growth and produce employment opportunities, in order to ensure social and political stability. This study highlighted the fact that international conceptions of the green economy do have a significant amount of flexibility towards local conditions, this may in some cases result in a drift away from some of its stated aims (reducing greenhouse gasses, for example) towards addressing the most pressing local issues. This may potentially render its goals unachieved.