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Theoretically, the evident demand for housing in growing cities, particularly in the Global South would result in vertical consolidation of properties. However, unlike places in Latin America, where market and state responses to urbanisation are pushing cities higher and higher, in South Africa, the densification and land use intensity has, generally, remained horizontal, rather than vertical in nature. Du Noon offers an interesting counter position to this narrative. Unlike other Reconstruction and Development Housing Programme settlements, many property owners are demolishing the state-delivered units and erecting double-storey rental accommodation. Drawing from interviews conducted with 21 of these structure owners, this paper explores the drivers of this 'vertical consolidation' in Du Noon drawing lessons for housing policy and practice in South Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the South African context, the use of the judiciary as a means through which the poor can access housing and defend themselves from evictions has been addressed by several researchers (see, for example, Huchzermeyer, Urban Forum 14(1):80–106, ; Greenstein ). While some scholars seem to uncritically assume that the court offers the possibilities for redistribution and for the protection of the rights of marginalised South Africans (Gumede ), others, such as Huchzermeyer, have highlighted “the limitations of the judiciary as a route to democratic access to the city” (2003: 80). However, authors have not provided an in-depth analysis of the relationship between the demands made by a community-based organisation and their involvement in a court case. Drawing primarily from in-depth interviews with a community-based organisation in Alexandra called the Wynberg Concerned Residents (WCR) and local government officials involved with the Alexandra Renewal Project (ARP), this article illustrates the process through which the WCR becomes disempowered after its victory in court. Furthermore, it suggests that court cases do not always challenge the amount of resources provided by the state for the local level, in this case the ARP. As a result, victories in court do not necessarily have a positive effect on the living conditions of the poor as a whole. Instead of transforming development through the court system, the court may merely offer a potential means by which to re-manage specific local decisions so that the demands of particular residents can be addressed. The article concludes by offering a possible way forward given the disjuncture between community-based activists and movement theorists. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The issue of land is a critical one in post-Apartheid South Africa. Growing informality and poverty in urban areas, driven to a large extent by urbanisation, necessitates greater concerted action around land use management in urban areas to ensure more equitable, environmentally and socially sustainable use of finite land resources. The operation of the urban land market has been identified as a significant obstacle preventing the urban poor from accessing affordable land. A new approach, advocated by the UK Department for International Development and the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation entitled “Making Markets Work for the Poor—M4P” emerged in the 1990s. The M4P approach recognises that even successful market development will not distribute land to the poor and intervention in the land market is therefore required to promote more equitable land distribution patterns. The M4P perspective however has been accused of an obsession with economic solutions to the problem of landlessness and informality to the exclusion of other socio-political and legal remedies. The Brazilian case provides an example of a more progressive approach as it combines social policy and legal reform to regulate the use of urban land to ensure that land fulfils its “social function”. The presence of large tracts of vacant and unused land in cities is an important issue in the context of growing informality and competition for land and therefore requires urgent policy attention. The paper discusses the Brazilian case and the instruments used in that country to deal with vacant/unused land in cities. It argues that the progressive taxation of vacant land in cities could be a potentially valuable policy instrument in South African cities. Land-based fiscal instruments can be utilised by local government to manage the use of land and to access additional revenue which can be redistributed to the poor for the provision of infrastructure and services. Although these tools are not a panacea for challenges of informality and poverty in the developing world, they do have the potential to augment municipal income and to facilitate urban renewal, infill development and a more compact city. The paper argues though that these tools should be applied on a city-wide scale; part and parcel of an overall urban land reform strategy and plan for the city. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the mid-1950s, the City of Cape Town was part of a wider area demarcated as a Coloured Labour Preference Area. The free movement of African people into the city was strictly controlled and the residential areas were segregated along racial lines. In terms of Apartheid’s grand design, an area designated Mitchell’s Plain was demarcated for occupation by Coloured people in 1973 while another designated Khayelitsha was allocated for African people in 1984. The two areas were incorporated in one magisterial district, Mitchell’s Plain, in the mid-1980s. A sample survey of the area was conducted in late November and early December 2000 with a focus on labour market issues. Its aim was to capture occupants of households aged 18 or older. The survey data has been interrogated to describe the connections between migration, poverty and health in a city where recent rapid urbanisation is changing the demographic profile significantly. As a consequence, the need to provide adequate infrastructure, decent housing and employment poses a daunting challenge ten years after the new democracy has been ushered in. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]