3. Conceptualising mega-projects in contemporary cities: Mega-projects as a
3.6. Summary
It has been established that mega-projects have become a dominant strategy of urban regeneration within contemporary cities, including Durban, and consequently play a vital role in their future development. These large scale projects have particular distinguishing characteristics and procedural attributes, and are implemented for a variety of reasons in cities around the world. However, due to their large scale and associated impacts, they have elicited particular social and political responses, and have been confronted with criticism. It is therefore vital to identify, and incorporate into their implementation, development principles which are able to contribute to their long term success and a more sustainable urban future.
The next chapter presents the background to the study, reflecting on the South African, and specifically the Durban context, where a dual agenda of international growth and redistribution is required to address the conditions of the post-apartheid city, as well as the incorporation of a sustainability paradigm. The strategies which are employed in order to achieve this are governed by the city’s policy and planning framework, and this is presented in the chapter. The implementation of mega-projects as a pro-growth form of urban regeneration within the country and city is subsequently discussed, as a way in which the goals of Durban are being pursued. Background concerning the three identified mega-projects: the Moses Mabhida Stadium, the previously proposed Warwick Mall and the Point Development is thereafter provided. A presentation of the specific debates which surround mega-project development concludes the chapter.
Chapter 4
Durban: a post-apartheid city
South African cities have been shaped by their unique history, as well as more recent processes of globalization, which have resulted in urban restructuring and the current character of cities. These cities, such as Durban, consequently face specific challenges as they are confronted with the need to compete in the global economy, and simultaneously pursue redistribution. Cities must therefore make choices regarding the pursuit of pro-growth and pro-poor objectives in their urban regeneration, while attempting to incorporate sustainability into their development. National policy highlights the need for growth, and it is argued that economic growth will provide trickle-down effects which may then address poverty and unemployment. Cities have thus begun to focus on the implementation of predominantly pro-growth strategies, which include the development of mega-projects, to meet their goals. The city of Durban has planned and undertaken a number of these large scale urban regeneration projects, such as the Moses Mabhida Stadium, the previously proposed Warwick Mall, and the Point Development. There are however questions concerning the role which such mega- projects play in the city, and they are therefore surrounded by some debate. This chapter will address these ideas by firstly looking at the multiple agendas of the post-apartheid city.
4.1 South Africa and urban restructuring
For many years South Africa has been widely considered the most developed and modern country on the African continent; and for more than a decade, dramatic social and spatial change has been occurring in the country’s major metropolitan areas, particularly since the inception of democracy in 1994. The demise of apartheid resulted in forces of globalization becoming prevalent in South Africa; and this globalization of people and activities has exposed cities to a number of economic, political and demographic processes which have significantly changed the spatial structure of urban areas, as well as the social interactions of their residents (Freund, 2002; Wiley et al, 2002; Popke and Ballard, 2004).
South African cities, and particularly the large metropolitan areas, have thus all been shaped by the same global and national processes, but they also have distinct features which result from their unique natural environments, history, and economic, social and cultural make-up (Patel, 2000). They are characterised by a strong tradition of top-down planning and have significant capacity to finance
change, whilst de-industrialisation and decentralisation have been occurring. They are, however, also the sites of unemployment and poverty, and large numbers of citizens are involved in the informal economy (Freund, 2002). Within South African cities, there is consequently a stark juxtaposition of developed and developing world conditions in close proximity, which presents a unique range of environmental and developmental challenges (Patel, 2000; Todes, 2000).
4.1.1 Competing agendas: the challenge of the post-apartheid city
There are therefore a number of elements which are vital to the development of South African cities.
Urban development and regeneration have been identified as crucial national imperatives, and one element is therefore the establishment of a city region that is able to compete effectively in the global economy (Cornelissen, 2008; Pillay and Bass, 2008; Pillay and Bass, 2009); while another is the ability of the country to address issues of poverty, unemployment and under-development (Patel, 2000; Schwabe, 2002; Boraine et al, 2006; Cornelissen, 2008). There has also been a paradigmatic shift to sustainable urban development, and sustainability has become a central concept in South African urban planning, as a means of holistically addressing the various challenges which the country faces (Patel, 2000; Swilling, 2003; Boraine et al, 2006).
The post-apartheid city is thus confronted with an overwhelming array of objectives, as policy obliges city authorities to engage in social development, prioritising the needs of the poor in order to address the apartheid legacy of inequality and disempowerment, through explicitly pro-poor interventions. Simultaneously, local authorities are presented with major challenges to encourage economic growth through the extension of the international reach and integration of cities with the world economy, which requires the implementation of pro-growth strategies (Freund, 2002; Hall and Robbins, 2002; Nel et al, 2003; Rogerson, 2006b; Cornelissen, 2008; Pillay and Bass, 2009). These seemingly contrasting priorities of growth and redistribution result in particularly acute tensions between pro-growth and pro-poor agendas in the regeneration of South African cities which are trying to achieve meaningful sustainable development, and therefore require the incorporation of both agendas (Pillay and Bass, 2009; Sutherland et al, 2011). This dual agenda is reflected in the country’s Local Economic Development strategy, which emerged as one of the most important post- apartheid development options for addressing the country’s challenges (Rogerson, 2006b).
4.1.2 Local Economic Development
Local economic development (LED) is a characteristic feature of development thinking and planning in South Africa. It is a participatory development process which encourages the formation of partnerships between a territory’s private and public stakeholders in order to allow for the joint design and implementation of a common development strategy. This is achieved by utilising local resources and competitive advantage, with the goal of employment creation and the stimulation of economic development (Maharaj and Ramballi, 1998; Rogerson, 2003; Nel and John, 2006;
Rogerson, 2006b). According to Lootvoet and Freund (2006), LED can be interpreted in two ways:
the promotion of growth through the competitiveness of the economy, and the struggle against poverty. The national government therefore also attaches vast importance to the role of LED in contributing to reconstruction and development. Significant space and responsibility for LED strategy-making and implementation is established by the South African Constitution (Rogerson, 1999; Hall and Robbins, 2002; Rogerson, 2003), and these agendas are consequently entrenched in South African neo-liberal urban policies.
South African local governments are therefore trying to achieve both pro-growth and pro-poor development in the pursuit of creating a more sustainable city in the long term. However, market realities and attempts by cities to infiltrate the global economy often become the determining force in strategic interventions (Nel et al, 2003), resulting in a neo-liberal pro-growth agenda becoming dominant in cities. Consequently, pro-growth agendas are implemented with more frequency than pro-poor agendas in the urban regeneration of cities, as they provide the opportunity to pursue the economic imperative of competing effectively in the global economy, and thereby generating benefits for cities, such as Durban.