The post-1994 South African spatial planning system and Bill of Rights: A meaningful and mutually beneficial fit?

Abstract

With a new planning system taking shape, and a new Bill of Rights embodied in a transformative Constitution having been introduced in South Africa in 1994, this article grapples with the dual questions as to whether the new spatial planning system fits within the spirit of the Bill of Rights, and the Bill of Rights assists the new spatial planning system in the realisation of its objectives. As a prequel to the engagement with these questions, a brief overview of the events leading to institution of the Bill of Rights and its contents is provided. This is followed by a brief historical overview of the creation of the South African spatial planning system and a summary of its key features. These features can be reduced to the following basic components: (1) meaningful participation in all aspects of spatial planning; (2) an open, inclusive and just decision-making process where information is readily available; (3) recognition of religion and culture and equal treatment in application and decision-making; (4) an awareness of environmental issues; and (5) the significance of property and housing. The way in which these components are addressed in the Bill of Rights and other parts of the Constitution provides the starting point to determine the extent to which there is a meaningful and mutually beneficial fit between the planning system and the Bill of Rights.

A better zoning system for South Africa?

“…Other legislative mandates are an inclusive, just and democratic nation as contained in the Constitution and the Bill of Rights (Van Wyk and Oranje, 2014). This is consistent with other authors who identify democratic governance, participation and consensus, transparency of both rules and decision-making as important criteria (Oranje, 1995;Thomas, 1997;Talen, 2009;Nel, 2011;Görgens and DenoonStevens, 2013).…”

“…The relationship between land use management and social justice has long been recognised (Charlton, 2008;Van Wyk and Oranje, 2014). This includes the extent to which laws that determine "access to, the rights to develop and transact and the powers to tax urban land -are neither ideologically nor economically neutral.…”

Back to where it all began …? Reflections on injecting the (spiritual) ethos of the Early Town Planning Movement into Planning, Planners and Plans in post-1994 South Africa

“…Adding a further layer to this complex situation was the presence of a body of progressive planners, many of them (the younger ones) trained in planning programmes where apartheid and the apartheid state were strongly critiqued, and a few older ones, who had over the years made clear their disdain of and opposition to the prevailing unequal and unfair system (see Mabin 1991a;Muller 1991;Oranje & Berrisford 2012;Smit 1989). The tainted, morally bankrupt, internally fractured state of the profession meant that, while some of the more progressive planners in the profession could, and were, readily absorbed by the new post-apartheid administration and were involved in development of new legislation, policy and procedures post-1994, the profession as an entity was not leading or giving strategic guidance (Oranje & Berrisford 2012;Van Wyk & Oranje 2013). In contrast to days gone by, it was not so much fighting for attention and recognition, but caught up in resolving its inner struggles and tensions, while at the same time desperately trying to ensure its survival.…”

A critical Lefebvrian perspective on planning in relation to informal settlements in South Africa

“…South Africa's growing number of informal settlements exist in a complicated relationship with the statutory planning framework. At a national level, this framework has come to terms with the exclusionary nature of apartheidera planning and the continuation of many aspects of this exclusion well into the second decade of democracy (Van Wyk & Oranje, 2014). Protracted planning reform ushered in the Spatial Planning and Land Use Management Act 16 of 2013 (SPLUMA).…”