D.Litt. et Phil. (Sociology) / This study explores local state constructions of citizenship for the residents of informal settlements in urban South Africa during the first decade of local democracy, with a focus on the last electoral term of this period. While many studies in the social sciences have reported on citizenship experiences and self-help strategies of various categories of residents of post-apartheid South Africa, few have directed their gaze at the state, or studied up by investigating powerful respondents or sites and processes of power. Given that the state has its most direct dealings with the grassroots at local government level, and that compared to ordinary people it holds a disproportionate amount of power over citizenship, the character and strategies of the local state in South Africa are critical for a comprehensive understanding of post-apartheid urban citizenship. The study focuses on the policy area of housing as a key response to informal settlement. A constrained developmental local state has emerged in the post-apartheid period in South Africa, exhibiting both Weberian and non-Weberian qualities in its political-administrative interface. While very little evidence of a skills shortage or limited capacity has surfaced in the policy area of housing in the metropolitan municipalities of Johannesburg and Tshwane, respondents in both sites reported that the available funds from the central state were vastly insufficient for addressing the identified housing need. This severely limited local state capacity to respond to the priorities identified by community consultation and systematic needs assessment and resulted in a perceived imperative to limit responsibility and supplement funds. Consequently, the two local authorities have managed their level of responsibility by changing definitions of informal settlement. In an attempt to lower dependence on the local state, they have also moved some responsibility for responding to informal settlement and housing need away from the local state. Although the lack of funds was deplored in both cities, their specific strategies have differed in important ways. In the City of Johannesburg, the local state recognised that housing shortages and informal settlement could not be adequately addressed if categories of nonqualifiers such as foreigners were excluded from city programmes. Elected councillors therefore argued for a relaxation of the criteria in the national Housing Code. To access more funds, the local state has relied heavily on the private sector, but this is likely to push the poor out of the urban centre and to isolate them from economic opportunities, which reinforces the apartheid spatial distribution. In order to reach a larger proportion of the population in need of assistance, the City of Tshwane preferred to focus its efforts on the provision of serviced sites rather than on housing. This strategy was implemented in addition to severe repression in the form of eviction and destruction of informal settlements as well as a policy of zero tolerance of new informal settlement, for which two related rationalisations were offered by respondents: the high portion of non-qualifiers who live in informal settlements and, in particular, the presence of foreigners, for whom they would not accept responsibility. While the City of Johannesburg’s outsourcing of low-income housing serves to extend the disproportionate influence of the private sector over elements of urban citizenship, the City of Tshwane’s exclusion of non-qualifiers and its forced removal of informal settlements represent a unilateral approach to constructing citizenship. In both cases, the result is a degree of continuity with the early colonial administrations and the apartheid government. Both methods have also inflated the achievements of the cities. The overall result has been the construction of a narrow, shallow and punitive urban citizenship for residents of informal settlements in South Africa since the advent of local democracy in 2000.

This study uses the re-blocking policy adopted by the City of Cape Town to explore an alternative approach to the housing backlog crisis in South Africa. The two re-blocking projects examined in Mshini Wam and Kuku Town illustrate the benefits of re-blocking and the challenges that were overcome in both of these informal settlements. This study is descriptive in nature and explores the challenges that informal settlements present not only for their inhabitants, but also the impact these challenges have on the city itself. The re-blocking policy is explored as a potential approach to addressing these issues and how the in situ upgrading approach to informal settlements is an improved and sustainable approach for South Africa. Key findings suggest that the Re-blocking Policy can potentially address the challenges that informal settlements present and it could serve as a sustainable housing model for improving service delivery to informal settlements.

Bibliography: leaves 273-276. / The thematic focus of this dissertation is the specificity of user requirements for domestic energy applications in informal urban settlements and how these are fashioned by the contextual pre-conditions of poverty and instability. The fieldwork focused on a group of people who can be defined by the facts that they are people who house themselves, possibly fall into the lowest or no income sector of the population, are peripheral to the mainstream economic activity in the country and are temporary or permanent or roving urbanites. The research approach is done from the viewpoint that user requirements should inform the design of systems for domestic energy applications and that these subjective requirements constitute the correct point of departure from which to evaluate the efficacy of energy support services. The bulk of this dissertation consists of recounts of research interviews, illustrating some aspects of user requirements. These are presented as 'primary data' with the purpose of rendering the research more transparent and of feeing an information resource with the option of re-interpretation by the reader. The dissertation concludes that appropriate energy services will have to be characterised by adaptability and diversity as well as by sensitive responses to the micro networks of urban subsistence household economies.

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Thesis (MPhil (Sociology and Social Anthropology))--University of Stellenbosch, 2009. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This study examines the issue of informal settlement fires, specifically in Kayamandi a township of Stellenbosch in the Western Cape province of South Africa. The study aims to identify the relevant role-players involved in addressing the issue and to understand the unique dynamics involved in this type of fires at the local level context. The study illuminates the main contextual factors that contribute to the perpetuation of informal settlement sprawl in South Africa and that relates to the risk and vulnerability experienced by informal settlement dwellers. A qualitative research approach was followed and a triangulation of data collection methods was used, combined with a relatively broad literature study to capture the complexity of the related issues. The contextual focus includes the macro-economic factors that contribute to the environment in which informal settlement fires occur, and furthermore, developmental, economic, political and social aspects and the related experience of poverty, urbanisation and unemployment. It was found that the theoretical underpinning of both the fields of Disaster Management and Community Development are relevant for analysis and addressing the research questions. Furthermore, that a relationship exists between the Disaster Management, Development and Community Development fields. This is particularly evident in Disaster Management policy and planning as related to prevention, mitigation, and public participation, such as community involvement in Community-Based Risk Assessments. Key findings suggest that local government in the demarcated study area has great influence on how the problem of informal settlement fires is addressed. From national to local municipality level, the State plays the largest role in addressing the issue and takes the responsibility for addressing informal settlement fires as part of disaster management mandates prescribed in legislation. The local government agenda as influenced by Disaster Management legislation include efforts related to awareness, education and training focused on Kayamandi as an informal settlement community and can be considered community development initiatives. This further relates to the view taken in the thesis that informal settlement fires are a social issue and not only an operational issue. Therefore the broad social, economic and political context and history were included and it was shown that the ‘problem’ of informal settlement fires is part of a greater developmental context and related processes. A variety of community development theories were chosen as a useful framework for analysis in this study and to approach issues of risk and vulnerability on a community level. It also presents a conceptual framework for including both non-governmental stake-holders and the affected community as role-players. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie studie ondersoek die kwessie van vure in informele nedersettings en spesifiek in Kayamandi, ‘n informele nedersetting van Stellenbosch in die Wes-Kaap provinsie van Suid- Afrika. Die doel van die studie is om die relevante rolspelers te identifiseer wat betrokke is by die aanspreek van die kwessie en om die unieke dinamika van vure in hierdie plaaslike konteks te verstaan. Hierdie studie beklemtoon die belangrikste kontekstuele faktore wat bydra tot die uitbreiding van informele nedersettings in Suid-Afrika en wat verband hou met die risiko en kwesbaarheid van inwoners van informele nedersettings. ‘n Kwalitatiewe navorsingsbenadering is gevolg en ‘n triangulasie van dataversamelingsmetodes is in hierdie studie gebruik. Dit is met ‘n relatief breë literatuur-studie gekombineer om die kompleksiteit van die verwante kwessies weer te gee. Die konteksuele fokus sluit in makro-ekonomiese faktore wat bydrae tot ‘n omgewing waarin informele nedersettingsbrande voorkom, en voorts, ontwikkelings-, ekonomiese-, politieke- en sosiale aspekte, sowel as die verwante ervaring van armoede, verstedeliking en werkloosheid. Daar is bevind dat die teoretiese begronding van beide die velde van Rampbestuur en Gemeenskapsontwikkeling relevant is vir ontleding en om die navorsingsvrae te kan beantwoord en dat daar ‘n verhouding tussen Rampbestuur, Ontwikkeling en meer spesifiek Gemeenskapsontwikkeling bestaan. Dit kom veral na vore in Rampbestuurbeleid en - beplanning soos van toepassing op voorkoming, mitigasie en publieke deelname. Van die belangrikste bevindinge suggereer dat die plaaslike regering in die gegewe studie die grootste invloed het oor hoe die probleem van brande in informele nedersettings aangespreek word. Van nasionale tot plaaslike vlakke neem die Staat die verantwoordelikheid vir die aanspreek van informele nedersettingsbrande, soos vervat in mandate wat deur rampbestuur wetgewing bepaal word. Die plaaslike regering se agenda soos bepaal deur Rampbestuur wetgewing bevat gemeenskapsontwikkelingsidees oor deelname en inklusiewe beplanning, bewusmaking, opvoeding en spesifieke opleidingsinitiatiewe wat op Kayamandi afgestem is. Dit sluit verder aan by die siening, soos geneem in die tesis, dat informele nedersettingsbrande meer as net ‘n operasionele kwessie is, maar ook ‘n sosiale dimensie insluit. Om hierdie rede word die breër sosiale, ekonomiese, politieke en historiese konteks in die studie ingesluit, soos wat dit op die ‘probleem’ van informele nedersettingsbrande as deel van die groter ontwikkelingskonteks en prosesse dui. ‘n Verskeidenheid van gemeenskapontwikkelingsteorieë is as ‘n bruikbare raamwerk geselekteer vir ontleding en as ‘n benadering om risiko en kwesbaarheid op gemeenskapsvlak aan te spreek. Dit bied ook ‘n konsepsuele raamwerk om beide nie-regeringsrolspelers en die geaffekteerde gemeenskap ook as rolspelers in te kan sluit.

published_or_final_version / Housing Management / Master / Master of Housing Management

Informal settlement areas (often referred to as squatter settlements or squatter camps) exist in all provinces of South Africa. These areas are characterized by rapid and unplanned development. The result of these is that property boundaries in most of these areas are not surveyed. Since the plots do not have boundary beacons, the land parcel is not properly defined and therefore, the property cannot be registered in the user or owner's name. Consequently, ownership is not guaranteed. Thus there are no legal documents to prove the relationship between an individual and the property. This paper discusses the problems in the land reform process that can be attributed to the existence of informal settlements. The paper is based on a research carried out to assess the effect of informal settlements on the success of the land reform programme in South Africa. A review of literature on the land reform programme and its implementation plan was carried out. The research also included a literature review on informal settlements in relation to property ownership, cadastral surveying and land registration. Three informal settlements in the KwaZulu-Natal province of South Africa were identified for study. These included Cato Manor and Umlazi section CC in Durban and Peace Valley 2 in Pietermaritzburg. / Thesis (M.Sc.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2005.