One of the most controversial and dramatic features of recent
city development is the phenomenon of access to land through
informal means, which is a reflection of the lack of alternative
delivery systems. Constraints on the supply of land for housing
the urban poor have resulted in a large housing backlog,
reSUlting in overcrowding, the emergence of unplanned housing
such as backyard shacks and free standing informal settlements.
In South Africa, the majority of the popUlation who have been
historically constrained by racist and restrictive land
allocation processes found it difficult to access well located
and affordable serviced land. These constraints have resulted
in poor people obtaining access to land through informal
delivery systems.
This effective exclusion of the urban poor from the formal land
market has resulted in the emergence of the informal systems of
land delivery, such as land invasions etc. Both internationally
and in South Africa, informal settlements and squatting have
represented a way of addressing and challenging market relations
and state regUlation and thus, allow for poorer people to move
into better located areas. The existing informal settlement
within the Cato Manor area (Cato Crest) can be regarded as an
example of this kind of urban process.
The purpose of this dissertation is to assess the performance of
the informal delivery systems in Cato Crest, to establish
whether these systems have reached the urban poor and to look
for ways of dealing with informal land mechanisms in the future.
The findings from the survey indicated that in Cato Crest these
illegal land supply systems have benefitted poor people in terms
of job opportunities, proximity to the city and location.
A number of recommendations can be made in this regard: that
there is a need for a land policy on informal land supply
systems, that which should seek to make strategically located
land available for low income housing in the future. If this is
not accomplished, illegal land occupation will continue unabated
until no land will be available for low income housing. / Thesis (M.Sc.U.R.P.)-University of Natal, Durban, 1995.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:ukzn/oai:http://researchspace.ukzn.ac.za:10413/2463 |
| Date | January 1995 |
| Creators | Motladi, Sarah Manthasa. |
| Contributors | Williamson, Amanda. |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
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