Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment (ETDs)

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Browsing Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment (ETDs) by Author "Bénit-Gbaffou, Claire"

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    Why do equity oriented, ‘progressive’ planning policies fail to redress the apartheid city? An examination of Planning Instrumentality in South Africa
    (University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2023-09) Klug, Neil; Bénit-Gbaffou, Claire; Todes, Alison
    In the immediate post-apartheid period, the fields of urban planning and housing experienced what some have called a ‘golden era’ during which planning played a significant role in the Reconstruction and Development Programme of the government, through developing new and progressive planning and housing policy instruments. Some of these instruments were designed to expedite the release of serviced land and provide subsidised housing, address the apartheid legacy of spatial segregation and housing backlogs. Despite success in the large number of houses delivered to the poor and increased service delivery to previously disenfranchised communities, by the mid 2000s there was growing criticisms of the state’s failure to redress discriminatory apartheid spatial patterns. South Africa was also experiencing growth in unemployment and inequality between emerging elites on the one hand and the majority of previously disadvantaged in society. This study sought to examine what role planning policy instruments played in failing to address the spatial legacies of apartheid. Acknowledging the wide range of potential variables contributing to this lack of efficacy, the study took an in-depth grounded, research approach. Using three case studies on different planning and housing related policy instruments and suits of instruments, at different phases of the policy cycle framework, it examined whether or not the state had managed to address housing and other inequalities. The first case study involved the examination of the processes and practices in formulating a local eviction policy instrument, the second reflected on housing officials’ engagement with the National Housing Code suit of instruments, and the third examined the practices and processes of implementing the Upgrading of Informal Settlements Programme. The findings of these case studies were that equity oriented, ‘progressive’ planning policies fail to redress the apartheid spatial inequalities because they are either not being selected for use or, where they are being applied, had limited impact because they were being implemented in a watered-down fashion. My thesis shows that there are multiple factors, from broad and complex governance structures to the actions of individual actors, that affect the efficacy of policy instruments.