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

9. Toward Greater Integration of Public Policy
and a comparison of objectives and financial resources. Not all cities make the same
use of their IDPs. Some cities, like Ethekwini (Durban), have relatively elaborate urban
development management strategies; the city of Ethekwini is working to plan its urban
development on several timelines, from a 70-year reflection to a 5-year plan in the IDP.
This municipality is one of the cities that has recently implemented an experimental
management programme: Area-Based Management (ABM). The programme identifies
specific municipal teams for five test zones (making up 50% of the city). Each team
is responsible for the urban development of a coherent territory and must manage all
the services in that territory in a coordinated manner over the long term. Each zone was
chosen according to the specific challenges that it must face.
One of the zones is I-N-K (Inanda, Ntuzuma, Kwa-Mashu), named after three
neighbouring townships east of the city centre. This zone also corresponds to one of
the projects in the Urban Renewal Programme, whose funds and actions are directed
by the same municipal team of approximately ten people in all. This type of management
allows the municipality to reflect on the scale of the project’s territory, which is adapted
to the stakes. Furthermore, this makes it possible to manage the various urban services
in a coordinated manner.
Another zone is Cato Manor, located barely seven kilometres from the city centre.
The population in this zone had been chased away during apartheid and, in the 1980s,
the zone was invaded by informal housing. Cato Manor is also the site of another pilot
project in the Informal Settlement Upgrading Programme. The municipal team must
ensure the improvement of shantytowns and must systematically find suitable rehousing
solutions within Cato Manor. The same team is in charge of the development
of new land, facilities and public spaces, and housing programmes; this allows for
continuity of action. The area-based management approach is also being tested in other
smaller cities, and represents the municipalities’ determination to improve the integration
of areas and struggling populations.
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9.3.2. Geographically-Targeted, Long-Term Rehabilitation Programmes: The
Renewal of Urban City Centres
Since the 1960s and more particularly throughout the 1980s and 1990s, city
centres have been declining; populations fled the city centres and this flight was
© AFD 2009 Integrating Poor Populations in South African Cities