Development planning and citizenship in Cape Town

Abstract

This article argues that there is a dialectical relationship between development planning and citizenship in so far as planners, as institutional decision-makers, ensure a meaningful everyday lived experience for ordinary people. In post-apartheid South Africa, however, the statistical record signals a disjuncture and structural hiatus between what should be the basic rights of ordinary people and the role of local government in promoting citizen-driven development planning at the grassroots level. This article deals specifically with the Wallacedene community, who took the planning authorities to court to have their constitutional right of access to adequate housing and related services enforced. The implications of this court case vis-à-vis development planning are considered and recommendations are proffered.

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Notes on contributors

John J Williams

Adjunct Professor, Department of Geography and Environmental Science, University of Fort Hare. Support for this work was provided by the Development Research Centre on Citizenship, Participation and Accountability, a research network coordinated in the United Kingdom by the Institute of Development Studies (IDS); in Bangladesh by the Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS), in Brazil by the Centro Brasileiro de Análise e Planejamento (CEBRAP), in India by the Society for Participatory Research in Asia (PRIA), in Mexico by the Instituto de Investigaciones Sociales of the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (IIS-UNAM), in Nigeria by the Theatre for Development Centre of Ahmadu Bello University (TFDC) and in South Africa by the Centre for Southern African Studies/School of Government of the University of the Western Cape (UWC). Funding was received from the UK Department for International Development. The support is much appreciated.