Employment Profile
2.2 Spatial Context of eThekwini Municipality
2.2.1 Major Land Uses, Settlement Pattern and Urban Form
The eThekwini Municipality accommodates a wide range of land uses including formal and informal, urban and rural settlements and these are complemented by economic, transport, public and social infrastructure.
Other prevalent land uses include agriculture and traditional settlement. A large part of the municipal area is also designated as part of the metropolitan open space system.
About 68% of the Municipal area is considered rural, with pockets of dense settlement. About 10 % of the rural areas comprise commercial farms and metropolitan open space and about 90% of the rural area is defined by its geospatial features, such as hilly, rugged terrain, dispersed settlement patterns in traditional dwellings and communal land holdings under the Ingonyama Trust. This institutional arrangement is unique to the eThekwini Metropolitan Municipality and presents a number of challenges particularly with respect to land, planning and urban management. The remainder of the municipal area, approximately 32%, is urban and is dominated by residential, commercial/office and industrial land uses. The economic land uses, located in closer proximity to the N2 and N3 are unevenly distributed throughout the Municipality and separated from the higher density residential uses.
The concentration of dense residential uses in the Central (Umlazi) and North regions (INK) and the significant economic and residential uses in the Central Metropolitan Region has resulted in an urban form with a clear separation of residential uses from economic uses. This implies that there are few employment opportunities where people live, and that economically active residents must commute long distances at great cost in terms of time and financial resources.
There is a concentration of more intense uses in the Central and North planning regions, and by comparison, relatively low-intensity of use in the Outer West and Southern Planning Regions. The Central Region represents the urban core of the EMA. It has significant economic, residential and servicing capacity and
53 thus presents an opportunity for densification and because of its servicing capacity can support higher thresholds for a range of services, industry and public transport. While the Northern Region is seen as the growth path of the EMA, portions of the South and Outer West regions also offer, albeit limited, opportunities for expansion and growth.
In addition, large numbers of informal settlements are scattered across the city, many in peripheral locations or on steep land or flood plains, placing them at higher risk of erosion and flood damage.as indicated in the figure below This requires that urgent attention be given to addressing the housing backlog and a key spatial challenge is to identify residential opportunities on land that is well located, serviced and with good access to public transport as well as social and economic opportunities.
Figure 9: eThekwini Informal Settlements
54 2.2.2 Vacant Land and Land Claims
A map indicating the location of Public Owned Vacant Land and its distribution across the city as shown in Figure 9 below, shows that small pockets of vacant land are scattered across the city and that there are few opportunities to use state land to address the housing backlog or provide significant investment opportunities. Although all potentially environmentally sensitive / undevelopable land has been excluded from this map, it should not be assumed that this land is available or appropriate for development without first determining its status, intended development and/ or following due planning process.
Figure 10: Public Owned Vacant Land in eThekwini
55 Status of Land Claims Land Restitution Act
The Land Restitution Act of 1994 introduced a three tier land reform policy to redress the historical injustice of land dispossession, denial of access to land and forced removals by:
Land Restitution to restore land or provide financial compensation for people
Land Redistribution
Land Tenure reform Land Restitution
The Land Restitution Act of 1994 was for people or communities who lost their property as a result of apartheid laws or practices after 1913. They were invited to submit claims for restitution for the return of land or by financial compensation. At the end of March 1999, 67 531 claims by individuals or communities were lodged. 72% of the claims were urban and the remainder rural.
There were mostly financial claims for urban claims from victims of forced removal. A total compensation R1.2 billion was paid by December 2002. The restitution for rural claimants was processed by the return of land. Approximately 571 232 hectares were restored at a cost of about R442 million by December 2002. The intention of the government was to complete all the land claims by 2005. The figure below represents all land claims settled in the eThekwini Municipal area as of March 2016. A total of 34 urban land claims with financial compensation were settled in the eThekwini Municipality
The Restitution of Land Rights Amendment Act was passed by the National Assembly and National Council of Provinces on 30, June 2014 to extend the claims lodgment period.
Land claims also featured in the 2016 State of the Nation Address with 120 000 additional applications having been lodged by those that missed the 1998 deadline. Figure 11 below indicates the location of these land claims within the eThekwini Municipality as of February 2016 as provided by the Department of Rural Development and Land Reform.
56 Figure 11: Land Claims in eThekwini