8. Vision, Objectives, Strategies, Policies and Action Plans
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8. VISION, OBJECTIVES, STRATEGIES, POLICIES AND ACTION PLANS This section contains the main executive components of the WCPSDF namely the policies and their corresponding action plans. This section is introduced by a normative vision of how the Province should ideally be performing. It is written in the form of a retrospective press article in 2011, see Section 8.1. Section 8.2 briefly describes the map and its components of the WCPSDF. Section 8.3 describes the relationship of the Western Cape to the rest of South Africa and in particular to the two abutting Provinces of the Northern Cape and the Eastern Cape. Section 8.4 contains the policies and action plans divided into three main areas of intervention : socio-economic development, urban restructuring and environmental sustainability. Within these three overall categories the proposals are grouped around nine objectives. Implications of the WCPSDF for the metropolitan and five district municipalities are reviewed in Section 8.5. CNdV africa 8-1 PROVINCIAL SPATIAL DEVELOPMENT FRAMEWORK environmental planning, landscape architecture, urban design 7 NOVEMBER 2005 8.1 VISION PRESS RELEASE: EMBARGOED UNTIL PRINTING: INDEPENDENT NEWSPAPERS, NASPERS, M&G, TABLOIDS DATE OF RELEASE: 6.12.2011. The Western Cape - one of the best places to live in the world. A RECENT survey of living conditions in the Urban restructuring and economic include 10% social housing and 10% subsidy in 2005 which made it prohibitively expensive country’s Provinces has revealed a number of opportunity housing has also paid off although extensive to commute to work by car. heartening improvements in the life of the Coupled to this was a concerted effort to give design changes were needed to make the Western Cape Province. people in this sector more exposure to the benefit units less attractive to downgrading by Successful public transport First and foremost the Province appears to most accessible locations in the centre of prospective middle income residents. Fortunately this period saw the long called for have made significant strides in closing the villages, towns and particularly in the City of restructuring of the transport sector which gap between the first and second economies Cape Town. This was done through a Reducing homelessness occurred in the building up to last year’s very first identified by former President Thabo program of constructing public transport There is also little evidence of homelessness successful South African hosted Soccer World Mbeki in 2004. Unemployment in the termini and markets in the centre of the although the Breaking New Ground strategy Cup. Integrated public transport systems Province is down by half, and is now in the settlements, providing well located hives in of 2004 had to be broadened to embrace a comprising rail, bus and mini-taxis began to region of 10%. This has been achieved by a not only industrial areas but also other wide range of incremental housing options provide levels of service and safety that combination of improved education and strategic locations that could double as both targeted particularly at informal settlements. encouraged people to leave their cars and opt training, mainly targeted at the 20 to 35 year manufacturing and retail space, and providing The initial capital, intensive autonomous for public transport. The Klipfontein, old generation who had serious gaps in their safe, secure and accessible streetside spaces housing projects, while successful as pilots, Koeberg, and Tygerberg corridors in the City skills as a result of the turmoil in the sector in for innovative programs such as People at the required more human and material resources of Cape Town and the Paarl-Wellington, the the 1990s, and encouraging SMMEs and the Side of the Road. than were available. York Road (George) and the South Cape informal sector. public transport corridor using both rail and Integrating the suburbs Urban densification road between Mossel Bay, George, and New approach to education and training One of the most remarkable aspects about life The densification strategy appears to have Knysna and Bitou have all been successful. Rather than relying on traditional adult in the Western Cape has been the extent to worked in a number of ways. Not only has it South Cape commuters have some of the most education models the Province embarked on which the suburbs have become integrated. contributed to increasing the thresholds that scenic train journeys to work and back again an innovative program of on-the-job training While the broad pattern set in place by the made the small business projects in the urban in the world. Cycling is now a common sight coupled with a skills procurement strategy that Group Areas Act is still visible there is now centres successful, the projects with higher in most towns of the Province particularly encouraged formal businesses and individuals not only racial integration but also socio- numbers of smaller apartment units designed after a number of successful court cases to use local small scale manufacturers and economic integration in every suburb. The around attractive open spaces stopped the changed vehicle drivers’ attitudes to cyclists. service providers, including individual strategy of carefully designing large projects tipping out of middle class people from towns domestic workers wherever possible, in so that they accommodate a wide range of like Stellenbosch, Paarl, and Knysna. This A new model for shopping centres preference to large, multi-national companies. income groups appears to have been process began in response to the 2002 – 2005 The negative impact of out-of-town regional The provincial government's Human Capital successful once the initial resistance of property boom which saw the middle class shopping centres on small businesses, historic Strategy played a major role in this success. surrounding objectors had been worked moving to the urban edge or even far distant CBDs and car based commuting patterns and through. The companion strategy of towns with cheaper properties. They became traffic congestion was reversed as later encouraging projects as small as 20 units to caught in a vice as the 2nd oil crisis that began shopping centres were integrated into the CNdV africa 8-2 PROVINCIAL SPATIAL DEVELOPMENT FRAMEWORK environmental planning, landscape architecture, urban design 7 NOVEMBER 2005 existing urban fabric and became much easier still not using public transport, motor cycles settlements in the Province because they were original record breaking size of the solar panel to reach by public transport. Including civic and scooters and bicycles. unsure of the status of their farms. This array on top of BP house in Cape Town has facilities such as day hospitals, magistrates investment, in turn, resulted in a significant been surpassed on offices, factories and farm courts, technical colleges etc, in the centres Golf as a sporting integrator increase in rural employment. sheds many times. Considerable progress has has seen those centres become much more Golf is now one of the Province’s most widely been made with restoring the water quality of played sports. After the flagship golf estates Urban Edges, coupled with a new approach to vibrant places. This, together with the high valuing land outside of the Urban Edge based rivers and improving waste water treatment density residential accommodation that was of the late 1990s and early 2000s that were technology as well as ensuring that most new responsible for much social and environmental on the net yield of the property from increasingly integrated in the centres also agricultural, tourism or other appropriate townships since the mid 2000s use innovative helped some peripherally located centres, controversy the PGA took the initiative and off-grid disposal systems. developed a new model which saw existing activities in terms of existing rights resulted in suffering from the effects of the oil price a correction of rural land prices. Biodiversity conservation has also made huge increases, turn around declining business. golf courses, of which there was one in almost strides with the growing number of farm every village and town, upgraded. In some Land reform goals achieved conservancies, the continued operations of Rapid approval processes cases residential accommodation was This new approach to land values provided a Working for Water in the mountain catchment Much of the success in the densification integrated with the abutting nearby town's major boost to agriculture as it allowed areas and the strict provincial Urban Edge and programs was due to a rapid increase in the Urban Edge. financial yields to improve as well as the land Resort policies. speed at which appropriate development This development of golf courses did not reform program to acquire land at reasonable proposals were processed as a result of the result in an increase in water hungry grasses as prices. The Province has now almost achieved Migration as a major opportunity Province’s Integrated Law Reform program. considerable strides were made with the 30% target set by government in the early Not surprisingly, in the light of this social, This increased efficiency acted as an incentive indigenous planting. Some oil and sand 2000s although it has taken longer than hoped. economic and environmental success, in itself in that developers and financiers courses were retained and became a novelty migration to the Province, both nationally and began to invest in projects where they were While land reform took many forms, from internationally and by people from all walks attraction in their own right, particularly for high profile tycoons buying trophy farms to able to obtain quick approvals simply because overseas players. of life, has increased substantially. it was easier. labour sharing equity with farmers, there is Unfortunately, the oil crisis saw a decline in now a core of family based small farms that The human and financial resources that this Halting urban sprawl overseas tourists but the reemphasis on locals, compete successfully with commercial migration has brought has been turned to good After considerable erosion of much of the particularly the new middle class that so agriculture.