This document is submitted in partial fulfilment for the degree: Masters of Architecture [Professional] at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2015 / The focus of architecture in South Africa is often centered
on intense urban areas in the country. However, important
though these areas are, they represent only one facet of
the greater country. The rural areas around South Africa are
repeatedly overlooked. Added to that, our rich heritage and
increasingly unique and threatened relationship with the
natural systems around us is often sidelined. Our relationship
with the natural world is a complicated one. Humans,
perhaps the only species on earth able to do so, have the
opportunity to decide whether to live symbiotically with
nature or parasitically. Unfortunately the choice is often the
latter. One of the areas where our rather strained and openended
relationship with the natural world is most apparent
is in the impoverished rural Bonjaneni Community of the
Amazizi Tribal Authority located in the Okhahlamba District
of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. Mankind’s negative impacts
on this regions natural mechanisms are being felt locally and
nationally in three particular areas that form the key points
of focus for the thesis: grasslands, water systems and the
decline of the Cape Vulture population.
Grassland is of utmost importance ecologically, economically
and socially for the region, without healthy grassland
community livestock cannot survive, thatch cannot be
gathered and the landscape will become prone to severe
erosion during the rainy season. Erosion negatively affects
the Tugela River water catchment basin too. Without
healthy vegetation cover the landscape and community will
become prone to flooding. Silt from the erosion will impact
numerous dams further downstream that supply water to
KwaZulu-Natal and the economic heartland of South Africa,
Gauteng. The repercussions of a threatened population of
Cape Vultures are also of concern. Without the specialised
scavenger animal corpses will be left to fester in the sun,
developing carrion borne diseases that can negatively affect
the health of pets, people and livestock. These problems
result in a considerable financial burden to the community
and the government, yet these are all problems that can be
addressed through responsible stewardship of the land and
an awareness of our position in the natural world. / EM2017
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:wits/oai:wiredspace.wits.ac.za:10539/22091 |
| Date | January 2016 |
| Creators | Marchant, Craig Galen |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | Online resource (249 pages), application/pdf |
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