Browsing by Author "Hopa, Lutho"

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Actors, procedures, and institutions behind de facto land administration the case of Kya Sands informal settlement
(2022) Hopa, Lutho
This study is premised on the idea that the formal land administration system in South Africa is failing to acknowledge the plurality of land tenure systems and the wide range of practices that have evolved under non-formal tenure arrangements, leading to many holdings in land being left out of formal land administration processes. For decades formal land administration in South Africa has been reserved for those who hold what are referred to as real rights to immovable property; where immovable property includes land and everything that is permanently attached to it, which are registrable only in terms of the Deeds Registries Act 47 of 1937. This has produced ideas that have informed property rights and land law, that the formal land administration system is there to serve registered right holders only. The result of this has been that government does not provide adequate administrative infrastructure, planning and information systems support to off-register tenures as it does to statutory forms of tenure which are elevated to the apex of the land and property hierarchy. Because of these shortcomings, actors in the informal sector have established a body of practices that have evolved to undermine, accommodate, complement and reinforce formal systems of land administration but these often go unrecognised and undocumented. With the above shortcomings of land administration in mind, this study brings to the fore the established land administration practices of the community of Kya Sands informal settlement to elaborate on what grassroots land administration under an informal system of tenure looks like. The study is informed by studies and literature that have proven over the years that informal land delivery systems play an important role in urban residential supply in South African cities and so should be recognised and accommodated. Their strengths must be recognized, and their shortcomings be identified and resolved in ways which are not harmful to what communities already have established on the ground. The study uses the four functions of land administration i.e., land tenure, land value, land use and land development as a framework to document these practices and their associated institutional arrangements.
Evaluating the Impacts of the Zola Backyard Upgrading Programme on Landlords and Backyard Dwellers in the Area
(UNIVERSITY OF WITWATERSRAND FACULTY OF ENGINEERING & THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT, 2016) Hopa, Lutho
Backyard rental accommodation is increasingly receiving attention from the state, urban planners and policy makers as one of the solutions to the housing problem in South Africa. The state in their quest to achieving sustainable human settlements, has through various policies and programmes attempted to address some of the challenges experienced by people ‘operating’ in the informal housing sector. The Gauteng Department of Housing’s (now Gauteng Department of Human Settlements) Zola. Backyard Upgrading Programme was one of these programmes, set up to revive dead capital in the township by ensuring that property owners in Zola get the maximum use value of their properties in a sustainable manner. The Department through the programme upgraded approximately 500 backyard shacks in Zola. The programme however, did not have the desired overall outcomes. This study is centred on identifying the rationalities of both the state who are implementers of the Zola Backyard Upgrading Programme, as well as, landlords and backyard dwellers, who were the target group for the upgrading programme. The research argues that the phenomenon of backyarding in Zola is best understood and explained through the perspectives and experiences of those who supply and those who occupy backyard dwellings and that often top-down state attempts at controlling and regularising such a complex and relatively functional housing sector could have negative impacts on both backyard dwellers and landlords, most of whom rely on income generated from this housing process.