There was a marked decline in the quality of spatial planning documents since the introduction of the SDF Guidelines and the ‘ standardised ’ TOR in terms of SPLUMA . A skilled and experienced town and regional planner do not require guidelines to do spatial planning .
One cannot plan for things you cannot control or implement The founding basis of Town and Regional Planning were interventions to improve health conditions in urban communities . But , it has escalated to an all-encompassing desire to control every aspect of urban development and human activities . However , the failure to improve or impact human settlements are always followed by a call for more regulations and interventions . There is never the realisation that you cannot plan for what you cannot implement . For example , the local government in South Africa controls less than 5 % of the local economic asset base . Yet , this does not deter the “ planner ” from developing grandiose plan after plan , setting visions and chasing illusions in a world completely divorced from reality .
The town and regional planner has no understanding of the implications of their actions South Africa developed an obsession with plans . We present plans as the solution to our problems . However , reality proves time and time again that a plan in itself is meaningless . Nevertheless , if the required outcomes do not materialise , we re-do the plan , or , even better , we introduce a new plan .
We have built layers of plans of all sorts without any meaningful results in the process . The much favoured “ outcome-based ” approach to planning is plans driven by utopian needs while ignoring the harsh financial , resource and institutional realities .
The depletion and shallowing of planning skills lead to plans that show no proper quantification and analysis of issues . Instead , at best , figures exist as a cut and paste job in a “ status quo section ” of the plan but often without any bearing on proposals . If the government exists to deliver services , how can a town and regional planner plan without in-depth knowledge and understanding of municipal infrastructure and services ?
It implies the ability to determine the long-term cost implications of a spatial plan . One needs to assess the required capital expenditure requirements ( growth , backlogs and asset renewal ) and operating consequences thereof against the planning institution ’ s financial and institutional resource base . Irrespective of the composition and skills base of a spatial planning team , if the town and regional planner doesn ’ t understand the essence and relationships between infrastructure , finances , the economy and the environment , the plan is doomed from inception .
Currently , spatial planning is a fruitless and wasteful expenditure , as defined by the auditor-general , as it is undertaken without value or substance and does not yield any desired results or outcomes .
As problems deepen , the gallery of cheerleaders grows Our development challenges are well documented and known . The fact that government and especially municipalities battle with managing urbanisation and meeting the delivery demands escalate planning challenges daily .
However , as these problems grow , the number of planners who can address these challenges decreases . But as the skills base declines , the number of advisors and persons telling others what and how to do planning is rapidly growing .
Micro planning consultancies are mushrooming , and practitioners blindly follow and execute externally induced guidelines , directives and regulations . At the same time , NGO ’ s driving narrow objectives regardless of broader realities or consequences find comfort in supporting academia who latch onto global issues often irrelevant to local development challenges . The incapacitated professional bodies and associations that play a diminishing role and are sustained only by legal backing complete the picture .
A confused and mixed up implementation environment The role players overseeing planning and development in South Africa are the Department of Agriculture , Rural Development and Land Reform ( DARDLR ) – as custodians of spatial planning , Constitutional Development and Traditional Affairs ( COGTA ) being responsible for local government , and National Treasury ( SANT ) holding the purse strings .
Ironically , DARDLR , with no executive relationship with the local government , controls the town and regional planning processes . This relationship with DARDLR must frustrate COGTA in furthering the development of local government and service delivery in just the same vain that SANT ventured into urban planning to further financial controls over municipalities .
The crown jewel in this somewhat confusing institutional setup is the National Department of Housing and its agencies that cut across all spheres of local planning and may prove to be the most significant contributor to unsustainable local government and dysfunctional urban structures in South Africa .
The general picture is bleak and necessitates a fundamental rethink of planning and our town and regional planning approach . Town and regional planning in South Africa is everything but sustainable and integrated .
Our view of what a city is and how to get a population that reap the benefits of economic growth necessitates that we take the opportunity to rethink town and regional planning fundamentally .
There was never a more opportune time to break with the past in terms of archaic planning and land use control practices , rid our system of externally induced and often inappropriate global agendas , and establish our priorities and solutions to our problems .
Unfortunately , inaction may result in town and regional planning being the first profession to disappear in the twentyfirst century due to irrelevance and incompetence .
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