2013_14 IDP Review.pdf - KZN Development Planning

5. Unresolved land claims might have a very negative impact on agricultural development in the area.6. There is still relatively good mining potential in the northern parts. However, the impact and development of this potential is largelydepended upon the future demand for coal. It is not something that can be influenced by the Council but it ensure that t short termdevelopment initiatives do not compromised the future exploitation of these reserves.7. There might be conflict between mining potential and environmental conservation objectives in some areas.8. There are extensive conservation proposals but very few options for implementing these proposals. The Council should use EIAs ascatch net to promote the provincial conservation objectives.9. The largest potential for conservation lies in the promotion of the concept of conservancies created by private landowners. Theseconservancies are often linked to game farming, lodges, and tourism in general.10. Tourism is currently built around the “battlefields” concept. However, this is largely incidental tourism and one should explore theexpansion of this concept to the extent that the area becomes a tourism destination in its own right. The possibility of a Zulu CulturalFestival in line with the Grahamstown Arts Festival was mentioned as a possibility. The existence of various mission stations with arich history linked to the post war periods might be a logical extension for the battlefields concept.11. Existing settlement patterns are not conducive to development. The expansive low-density settlement in Nqutu and Msinga make theprovision of the most infrastructure, commercial, and community facilities not feasible and sustainable.12. Given the low and even negative population growth rates, the chances of changing this are very slim. One faces a settlement patternthat is structurally unsustainable.13. The high levels of immobility of a very poor population aggravate the situation. One has two options to spatially restructure the spatialenvironment. The one is to bring people to services and secondly to bring services to where the people are. The latter is not asustainable option since densities work against it. The only option is to improve the mobility of people. This will also not be easygiven the large number of people spread over an even larger area.As indicated in this summary, the assessment highlighted a number of issues or principles that should guide spatial development. Thefollowing have been identified as being critical to the development of the municipality:Infill and compaction to accommodate any possible growthThe assessment has shown that spatially the settlement patterns reached an undesirable configuration that seriously disadvantage currentresidents and in the process isolate them for access to opportunities, amenities, and resources. Any future development initiated by thepublic sector should be much more focused and be limited to the immediate areas of the first and second order nodes. Within these nodes,the emphasis should be on infill and compaction.Draft 2013/2014 IDP Review Page 223Prepared by Umzinyathi District Municipality22 March 2013