Integrating Poor Populations in South African Cities - Agence ...

9. Toward Greater Integration of Public Policy
9.2. Operational Initiatives by National and Provincial
Governments
9.2.1. Strengthening Centralities in the Townships: The Urban Renewal
Programme
Objectives
In 2001, the Department of Provincial and Local Governments 56 launched a
programme to improve the urban environment in the townships, the Urban Renewal
Programme. This ten-year presidential programme aims to reduce poverty in
disadvantaged zones by improving coordination in terms of urban investments. Eight
urban hubs were selected throughout South Africa, including Khayelitsha and Mitchell’s
Plain in Cape Town, I-N-K (Inanda, Ntuzuma, Kwa-Mashu) in Ethekwini, and Alexandra
in Johannesburg.
The Alexandra Renewal Programme (ARP)
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The project began in 2001 and was taken over by a new team in 2005, directed
by Julian Baskin, and bringing together in the same office the provincial and municipal
teams. This way of running the project makes it possible to better coordinate the
levels of government and have only one team in charge of all aspects of urban
development: roads, networks, schools, public spaces, housing, etc.
In addition, the project relies on an association of various communities, the Alexandra
Development Forum, and on the ward councillors to ensure ongoing dialogue with
the populations. This notably allowed the project team to get the population to
accept re-housing priorities: in order to build a school accessible for all, the households
occupying informal housing on the land chosen for the school were displaced and rehoused
in priority. In terms of housing, innovative solutions are used in large part to
eradicate informal housing in the area. First, it is a “block by block” approach to different
informal groups. Then, the housing solutions built and offered to the populations are
56. The National Department of Provincial and Local Government (DPLG).
Integrating Poor Populations in South African Cities © AFD 2009