CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW
2.7 INTRODUCTION TO INTEGRATED DEVELOPMENT PLANNING
2.7.3 Defining Integrated Development Planning
Integrated Development Planning in South Africa was introduced with the promulgation of the Municipal Systems Act (Act Nº 32) 2000, hereinafter referred to as the Systems Act. It stipulates that all municipalities in South Africa must prepare an Integrated Development Plan for their area of jurisdiction. Throughout the world, particularly in the United States and Britain, postmodernist planning was introduced post World War II in a response to dysfunctional cities, urban sprawl, areas which were supposed to be working together but which were not linked, and recognising the role of ordinary people and interest groups in urban and regional planning. This
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bottom-up, inclusionary and geographically integrated approach was not possible in South Africa given its socio-political context; it was only at the dawn of the democratic dispensation in the mid-1990s that such a planning philosophy could be introduced. In the case of South Africa, therefore, postmodernist planning was introduced as a response to planning challenges as per international experience, as well as to overcome the apartheid legacy of separate developments and exclusionary planning.
In essence, an IDP is an approach to planning that involves the entire municipality in finding the best solutions to achieve sound and long-term development. The municipality here is meant in its broader sense, consisting of political, administrative and citizenry arms. The plan ensures key municipal activities and processes are encompassed in a single document. The IDP is a continuous process whereby a local authority prepares a 5-year strategic plan for growing and managing development in its area of jurisdiction. The plan is reviewed annually in consultation with communities and stakeholders. This enables it to inform annual budgets and annual programmes/
performance targets. After every local government elections, the new Council has to decide on the future IDP; a Council can adopt the existing IDP or develop a new one, which takes into consideration existing plans.
“Integrated Development Planning aims at critically analyzing the current socio- economic trends of an area of jurisdiction for local government with the purpose of providing rational solution[s]” (Zulu, 1999: 20). These plans seek to promote integration by balancing social, economic and ecological pillars of sustainability without compromising the institutional capacity required in the implementation, and by co-ordinating actions across sectors and spheres of government. The Systems Act defines the IDP in more detailed terms as a single inclusive strategic plan for municipalities that:
integrates and co-ordinates service delivery within a municipality;
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forms the general basis on which annual budgets must be based;
aligns the resources and capacity of the municipality within the implementation of the plan;
assists a municipality in fulfilling its constitutional mandate as a developmental local government; and,
facilitates the process of democratisation through vigorous public participation.
Clearly the concept of IDP is in line with the latest international perspective on urban and regional planning. As was shown above, urban and regional planning has moved beyond the narrow development control of the physical environment to the strategic management of the built environment, and lately to the integration and coordination of development management as whole, incorporating different disciplines such as the economy, society, psychology, infrastructure, administration, etc. Central to Integrated Development Planning is the notion of a new approach to development planning, i.e. an integrated approach. The concept of integration is aimed at harnessing the country‟s scarce resources in order to maximise social development and economic growth in a coherent and purposeful manner, by preventing municipalities, sector departments and parastatals in particular from acting in an ad- hoc, uninformed and uncoordinated manner, leading to dysfunctional development, duplication and wastage of limited resources.
The integration elements in the IDP are enhanced significantly through:
the structuring of implementation into the IDP processes e.g. the involvement of the key implementers in the planning process;
the development of specialist cross-cutting plans e.g. a 5-year financial plan, a 5-year capital investment programme, a 5-year action plan and an integrated institutional programme; and,
the alignment of human activities, organisational systems and financial resources, both within and outside the local municipality, to enhance delivery,
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e.g. contracts with external service providers, a properly organised project management system and a Performance Management System.
Like any other public management tool, urban and regional planning is embedded in a particular broad system of government, which influences its suitability and effectiveness. The Constitution of the Republic of South Africa (Act 108 of 1996), states that the government of South Africa is constituted as national, provincial and local spheres of government. These three spheres are designed to be distinctive, interdependent and interrelated. It should be noted that the Constitution does not declare any sphere to be independent from the others. However, a significant departure from the past with this spheres approach is that local government is now a sphere of government in its own right and is no longer a function of national and provincial government. All spheres are obliged to observe the principles of co- operative governance put forward in the Constitution. Cooperative government assumes the integrity of each sphere of government, but it also recognises the complex nature of governance in modern society. No country today can effectively meet its challenges unless its different components function as a cohesive whole.
According to (Africa, 1998) this involves:
the collective harnessing of all public resources behind common goals and within a framework of mutual support;
developing a cohesive, multi-sectoral perspective on the interests of the country as a whole, and respecting the discipline of national goals, policies and operational principles;
coordinating their activities to avoid wasteful competition and costly duplication;
planning and utilising human resources effectively;
settling disputes constructively without resorting to costly and time-consuming litigation; and
rationally and clearly dividing the roles and responsibilities of government so as to minimise confusion and maximise effectiveness.
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IDPs are vital tools to ensure the integration of local government activities with other spheres at provincial and national levels, by serving as a basis for communication and interaction at the local community level. IDP thus serves as a mechanism for alignment and co-ordination within spheres of government. Within the municipality, the IDP plays the role of providing a space for engagement between officials, councillors, citizens and other stakeholders on practical local concerns.