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Settlement categorisation differs tremendously between countries making their cross‐comparison, globally, close to impossible. In 2012, the United Nations (UN) proposed a manner in which settlements within its member states could be classified. However, the proposed typology is rather broad and does not offer much on how settlements are classified. Consequently, this paper explored how settlements in South Africa (one of the UN member states) have been categorised, as it is believed that at the least settlements should be categorised consistently within a particular country. This paper conducted an explorative literature review in order to uncover how settlements have been classified in South Africa between 1993 and 2016 in order to draw deduction on the typology of settlements in South Africa. Findings were drawn through a comparative analysis of the literature in order to determine if there was consistency in the understanding of how settlements are classified within the country. The paper found that the categorisation of settlements within South Africa has been a rather contentious matter and the method of classification being fickle in its application. The paper calls for a more structured approach to categorising settlements within the country and pose spatial considerations for other countries dealing with similar issues. Future research in this regard should be considered in order to understand the application of settlement typologies in the quest of a uniform classification as envisioned by the UN. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]