Report on the Planning and Land Use Management Reference Group
Meeting,
Jike Visitors and Resource Centre, 16th Floor, Joburg Metro Building, 158 Loveday Street,
Braamfontein, 14 March 2011.
Organised by South African Cities Network
ATTENDANCE
Name
Martin Lewis
Nyakane Khoali
Marx Mupariwa
Dawn McCarthy
Leah Poto
Dennis Madumo
Soobs Moonsammy
Michael Kihato
Ivan Turok
Cheryl Walters
Nellie Lester
Marthina Allers
Philip Viljoen
Melinda Silverman
Tanya Zack
Andile Skosana
Bea Drost
Gemey Abrahams
Henriette Koch
Gina Zanti
Herman Pienaar
Mduduzi Nhlozi
Moira Campbell
Mika Chauke
Mpho Hlahla
City/Organization
SACPLAN
Msunduzi Municipality
SALGA
Nelson Mandela Bay
City of Tshwane
City of Tshwane
Ethekwini Municipality
SACN
HSRC
City of Cape Town
COGTA
Ekurhuleni
Ekurhuleni
Consultant
Consultant
Mukhaha Consulting
The Presidency
Consultant
City of Tshwane
City of Joburg
City of Joburg
SACN
Consultant
Consultant
Tirana
1
CONTENTS
SUMMARY .................................................................................................................................................. 3
RATIONALE AND INTRODUCTORY ISSUES ..................................................................................... 4
PRESENTATION ON THE PLANNING AND LAND USE INDICATORS............................................................ 4
PRESENTATION ON THE STATE OF THE CITIES REPORT BUILT ENVIRONMENT
CHAPTER ............................................................................................................................................... 6
PRESENTATION ON THE STUDY INTO PROVINCIAL PLANNING AND LAND USE
LEGISLATIVE REFORM IN SOUTH AFRICA ................................................................................... 6
COMMENTS, DISCUSSIONS AND ACTIONS ..................................................................................... 7
2
SUMMARY
The South African Cities Network (SACN) invited a reference group meeting of its member
cities, SALGA, consultants and service providers to discuss planning and land use management
systems (LUMS) in South Africa. The primary focus of the meeting was to appraise practitioners
on the some of the research the SACN is involved in this arena. This includes the urban
indicators research, where there was testing of a number of indicators which could be used to
track urban change and development. Two other research areas were discussed: the built
environment chapter of the State of the Cities Report (SoCR 3) as well as the inception into a
study that looks at the provincial land use management laws in South Africa.
A number of key issues were raised in the workshop. In summary:
Urban indicators on planning and the built environment

Adoption of indicators should be done only after: adoption of overarching principles to
guide their development; consideration of their value as indicators; what the current
existing indicators are; and their risks and limitations.

Indicators can be broadly divided into 3: process, organisational and operational.

The value of indicators is reliant on the availability and reliability of information used to
formulate them.

The practicality of measuring the indicators (resources, time and organisational effort)
should also be balanced against the use and value of the indicators.
State of Cities Report Built Environment Chapter

There is a need for cities to take a clearer position on informality and how to deal with it

There is an urgent need to understand the role of informality in urbanisation

There is need for a change thinking with regard to informality

Understanding relationships between regulatory system and informality is key

Transportation systems should not be planned in isolation, and they should be within a
broader integrated system.
3
RATIONALE AND INTRODUCTORY ISSUES
SACN is developing a number of indicators to measure the health of planning and land use
management systems existing in its member municipalities. Whilst the indicators provide a basis
for which cities can better understand urban change, there are a number of questions that need
to be asked when attempting to adopt indicators. These are:

The value of indicators

What the principles for indicator development are

The philosophy underpinning the indicators

Current existing indicators and measurements; and

Risks and limitations of indicators.
Due to the legacy of South Africa’s planning legislation, different provinces use different
legislation regarding land use management, which has created a veritable maze of inefficient,
fragmented and ultimately, ineffective system of land use management in the country. The
reference meeting provided a platform from which to explain what SACN is doing to help its
members in better understanding this current state of affairs, especially in the light of the law
reform process being undertaken by the Presidency through the Spatial Planning and Land Use
Management Bill (SPLUMB).
Finally, as part of its flagship State of the Cities Report, to be launched in April, SACN has
produced a chapter that looks, in some detail, into the built environment. The forum was a
platform for testing out the issues presented therein.
PRESENTATION ON THE PLANNING AND LAND USE INDICATORS
A presentation to the audience was made, detailing the rationale behind adopting indicators, as
well as a line up of possible indicators that can be use to measure planning and land use
management systems. These were broadly divided into three:
Process Indicators
Planning is a regulatory process, and it is important to understand how well this process is
working. Process indicators therefore seek, among others, to:

Measure the health of local government planning system

Measure various aspects of how strategies are made,

Frequency of Spatial Development Framework development
4

Coverage of Town Planning Schemes

Involvement of stakeholders in plan making processes, and so on.
Whilst this seems to be an important indicator for LUMS, there are hard issues that still need to
be considered. These relate to the question of:

The expectations from this indicator

The rationale behind measuring process

Whether there is confusion between broad indicators and specific measurements

The value of measurement.
The discussion proceeded to the presentation of a number of indicators, where the criteria set
above were used to retain or discard the indicator.
Organisational Indicators
This is a fairly complicated land use management measure. It measures the institutional
capacity within the municipal organization. It is also related to the level of integration of the
planning unit/department within the municipal structure. The complexity and multidisciplinary
nature of planning poses a challenge to the effectiveness of this indicator. Most importantly,
most if not all, member cities alluded to the fact that they already have some sort of tools which
they measure/evaluate themselves against. The consensus was the utility of these requires
greater thought before adoption.
Outcome Indicators
Outcome indicators are the more useful as measures of urban change. These seek to measure
a number of outcomes of the planning system. Measuring the outcomes of the planning process
is crucial to providing an overall overview of the state of he built environment of the city. Whilst a
lot of positives were drawn from outcome indicators, there were also critical points raised
around the issues of how these indicators can measure informal activities, which often go
unnoticed. Other issues raised in the session include:

Logistical difficulties in measurement;

The difficulty in determining what unit of measurement to use;

The issue of timeframes

Causality of these indicators.
Another important issue raised was the availability and reliability of the information in attempts
to measure issues such as population density in the cities, spatial distribution and land values
5
across the built up areas in the city. A number of the member cities alluded to the fact that whilst
measuring these was ‘doable’, it can prove extremely difficult. Also important is that some of the
outlined indicators had been tried before and proved resource intensive. Thus the indicators
chosen need careful consideration, paying regard to their relevance and the practicality of
measuring them. .
PRESENTATION ON THE STATE OF THE CITIES REPORT BUILT ENVIRONMENT
CHAPTER
Taking a slight turn from indicators, but still on the built environment was the presentation on the
State of the Cities Report built environment chapter. The built environment chapter primarily
focuses on analysing the state of the built environment with specific reference to housing,
services and transport issues. The chapter analyses what has been achieved after ten years of
consolidated local government system, what are the trends and what the future holds. Notable
in all the major cities examined was the similar trend of urban change. These cities experienced
massive residential development, a lot of it in the informal areas, pointing to the role of
informality in urbanization. The general consensus was that there is a need to change thinking
regarding informality and cities need to take a clearer position in dealing with it.
Transport was another issue that was dealt with. The state of the current transport system and
opportunities offered by this sector to create inclusive and high densified cities was discussed.
There was however an important point made around the way in which cities plan their transport
system. Most cities continue to plan their transport system in isolation except for Cape Town’s
Integrated Transport Plan. This limits the potential for transport to improve access in the cities
we live in.
PRESENTATION ON THE STUDY INTO PROVINCIAL PLANNING AND LAND USE
LEGISLATIVE REFORM IN SOUTH AFRICA
This study has just commenced and the presentation was an introduction to the team, the
scope, and methodology of the study. Different provinces and the municipalities that fall in them
have different land use management legislative challenges facing them. This study seeks to
firstly, assess the practice of land use management under all these legislative regimes and
secondly, look at the implications of the current legislative reform process on SACN members
and the provinces.
6
COMMENTS, DISCUSSIONS AND ACTIONS
Item 1
Title: Measuring the Performance of LUMS

Starting point: Why indicators?
o Ideal LUMS? What should these look like?
o Value of Indicators
o Principles of indicators
o Current indicators& Measurements
o Risk& limitations of indicators

3 Indicators
o Process (Measuring health of local govt.
Planning system, operation of planning
process, tracking regulatory process).
Organisational (Institutional setup, learning drive within the
organization, link between planning& budgeting)
o Outcome (Track urban change, changes in
land value)
Item 2
Title: State of Cities Report: Built Environment
Actions/comments/discussions









Need to find common ground on issue of LUMS.
Why are indicators necessary for this sector
What is the philosophy underpinning indicator
development?
Currently there are many indicators, but no
emphasis on the spatial dimension
Need for more research on organizational
measures
How is this going to be measured?
What is going to be measured?
Confusion on broad& specific measurement of
urban change
Separation between systems& outcomes. Need
to focus more on outcomes than system
Actions/discussions/comments
Chapter




Item 3
Importance of the chapter in the context of
development grant
Deals with issues of transport and housing.
Data limitations on the number of RDP houses
provided thus far
Cities struggling under intense pressure on the
built environment
Title: Provincial Planning& Land Use Legislative







Greater understanding of growth occurring in
the informal areas
Lack of regulatory mechanisms in informal
areas leading to growth in these areas
Understanding
role
of informality
in
urbanization
Clear position on how to tackle informality
Need to change thinking around informality
Acceptance of informal growth
Conflict
between
city
visions
and
urbanization.
Action/Discussions/Comments
Reform in SA: A Provincial& Municipal Response
(Inception)
Still at the early stages of the study, and thus there is a lot
of research that needs to go into this subject matter. The
study attempts to understand the legislative regarding
LUMS facing both the municipalities and the provinces.


Research and studies into the practices of
LUMS in all the provinces
Looking at the implications of the new yet to
be introduced legislation on municipalities
7
APPENDIX
SOUTH AFRICAN CITIES NETWORK PLANNING AND LAND USE MANAGEMENT REFERENCE
GROUP MEETING
JIKE VISITORS AND RESOURCE CENTRE, 16TH FLOOR, JOBURG METRO BUILDING, 158
LOVEDAY STREET, BRAAMFONTEIN, 14 MARCH 2011
Draft agenda
REGISTRATION AND TEA – 08:30 – 09:00
09:00
Welcome, introductions and meeting objectives
Michael Kihato , SACN
09:15
Measuring the Performance of Land Use Management Systems
Melinda Silvermann, Andile Skosana and
Dr Tanya Zack
Interactive Sessions
All
TEA BREAK (10:15 – 10:30)
10:30
Measuring the Performance of Land Use Management Systems
Melinda Silvermann, Andile Skosana and
Dr Tanya Zack
Interactive Sessions
All
LUNCH (13:15)
14:00
Presentation: State of Cities Report: Built Environment Chapter
Ivan Turok, HSRC
14:45
Provincial planning and land use legislative reform in South Africa: A
provincial and municipal response (Inception)
Gemey Abrahams, Prince Dludla
15:30
Thanks and closure
Michael Kihato , SACN
8