Metropolitan management and planning in South Africa

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT:The importance of and the need for metropolitan planning and government structures in thedevelopment of cities have become evident over the last century. Internationally, theapproach to metro governance has evolved from informal metro management structures into,for example the more formalised two-tier or single tier systems of London and Toronto. Therecent changes in these systems indicate that there is not one system that is universallyaccepted as the best.South Africa has not escaped the metropolitan development process and the resultingproblems that went hand in hand with this. The first form of metropolitan planning in SouthAfrica occurred in 1940, with the inception of the Joint Planning Committees. Later, in 1986the institution of Regional Services Councils served as the first form of metropolitangovernance. In 1995 the first democratic Local Government elections hailed the entry intodemocratic metropolitan government structures. With the proclamation of six newmetropolitan areas South African metropolitan governments adopted the two-tiermetropolitan system.Since 1995 South African local government structures have undergone majortransformations. Proponents of the current two-tier system failed to anticipate the pressuresof Central Government for change to the one tier, megacity or unicity model. Critics of thegovernment's plans argued strongly for the retention of the current two-tier model and forminimal organisational change. The disruption that yet another transformation will cause, isone of the main objections.In the Cape Town and Durban Metropolitan Areas the consensus seems to be that thepresent two-tier system is working well and that it should be retained. In the case ofJohannesburg Metropolitan Area many problems were encountered, especially the inabilityto redistribute local government income. The consensus there is that a unicity model willwork better.Whether the unicity model is the answer to urban sustainability for all metropolitan areas ofSouth Africa, is still a disputed fact.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University