Land Biographies in Diepkloof, Thokoza and Doornfontein, Gauteng
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‘Divisible Spaces’: Land Biographies in Diepkloof, Thokoza and Doornfontein, Gauteng A final draft report prepared for Urban LandMark By Colin Marx Margot Rubin Progressus May 2008 Land Biographies ______________ Table of Contents 1.0 Introduction .................................................................................................................. 4 2.0 Conceptual framework and methodological considerations ....................................... 5 2.1 Locating rights to land in meaning systems ........................................................ 7 2.2 Land use management systems ........................................................................ 11 2.1.1 Formal land use management systems ........................................................... 13 2.1.2 Some approaches to understanding the informal use of land ........................ 15 2.1.3 The power of land ............................................................................................ 17 3.0 Methodology ............................................................................................................... 17 4.0 Land Biography: Diepkloof .......................................................................................... 25 4.1 Diepkloof’s Summary ......................................................................................... 25 4.2 Diepkloof’s Story................................................................................................ 25 4.3 Land Use Management and Administration formal and Informal .................... 34 4.3.1 Access: houses, shacks and beds ..................................................................... 34 4.3.2 Secure Tenure: Holding and claiming land ...................................................... 38 4.3.3 Controls, Conflict and authority: use and abuse ............................................. 42 5.0 Land Biography: Thokoza ............................................................................................ 49 5.1 Thokoza Summary ............................................................................................. 49 5.2 Thokoza’s story ................................................................................................. 50 5.3 Land use management in Thokoza ................................................................... 70 5.3.1 Access to Land .................................................................................................. 70 5.3.2 Tenure security ................................................................................................ 73 5.3.3 Conflict, control and authority ......................................................................... 74 6.0 Land Biography: Doornfontein ................................................................................... 76 6.1 Summary of Doornfontein’s Land History ......................................................... 76 6.2 Doornfontein’s Story ......................................................................................... 77 6.3 Land Use Management in Doornfontein ........................................................... 88 6.3.1 Access: How to get a place in Doornfontein ............................................. 89 6.3.2 Security of tenure: holding your place ..................................................... 92 6.3.3 Controls, conflict and authority: use and abuse ....................................... 95 7.0 Analysis of Findings ..................................................................................................... 99 7.1 Co‐existing land use management processes ................................................... 99 7.2 A framework for analysing the co‐existence of land use management processes and rights 8.0 Conclusion ................................................................................................................. 114 9.0 References ................................................................................................................ 116 10.0 Annexures ............................................................................................................... 119 Annexure 1: List of Land use managers interviewed .................................................. 119 Annexure 2: Land Biographies: Interview Protocol for Managers ............................. 121 Annexure 3: List of Local Informants .......................................................................... 124 Annexure 4: Land Biographies: Interview Protocol for Users .................................... 126 Annexure 5: Focus group participants ........................................................................ 132 Annexure 6: Focus Group guidelines .......................................................................... 134 2 Land Biographies ______________ Table of Figures Figure 1: Doornfontein within the Johannesburg context ............................................... 18 Figure 2: The Doornfontein Precinct ................................................................................ 19 Figure 3: Map of Soweto placing Diepkloof in context ..................................................... 20 Figure 4: Diepkloof Precinct .............................................................................................. 21 Figure 5: Thokoza within the context of Ekurhuleni ......................................................... 22 Figure 6: Thokoza Precinct ................................................................................................ 23 Figure 7: Diepkloof house in the 1980s ............................................................................ 30 Figure 8: Changes to the Diepkloof Hostel over time ....................................................... 41 Figure 9: Examples of Changes made to a township house in Diepkloof ......................... 44 Figure 10: Changes to the community over time ............................................................. 48 Figure 11: Photograph in Thokoza taken in the early ....................................................... 67 Figure 12: Growth and change in Thokoza hostels over time .......................................... 67 Figure 13: Drawing of living space and uses in Thokoza .................................................. 75 Figure 14: Doornfontein over time (see attached) ........................................................... 84 Figure 15: Changes to Doornfontein as recorded by a long term resident ...................... 89 Figure 16: An example of Internal changes made to a rented property .......................... 97 3 Land Biographies ______________ 1.0 Introduction Land use management is the formal and informal processes of dividing spaces: physical spaces, imagined spaces, mapped spaces, legal spaces, ethnic spaces, public spaces… This report explores how urban land is endlessly divided and re‐divided within the context of the interaction of formal and informal land use management systems. What processes, practices, techniques and power is required to make it possible to divide spaces in smaller or larger parcels? It is important to understand these processes and practices because the divisions have direct consequences for what activities happens where, whether resources are distributed or concentrated and who controls different activities. The interface between formal and informal land use management systems is a very complex context in which to analyse how land is accessed, held, and traded by poorer urban people. However, this research shows that the interface between, what is considered, formal and informal land use management is a site that generates rich insights into the nature of how poor people use urban land and provides a resource for future progressive practice. The aim of this project is an attempt to understand and unpack how urban land has moved through formal and informal systems of land management over time. It is an experiment that is intended to add to the growing body of theoretical and empirical work on land, land use, administration and management in South Africa. The report demonstrates some of the complexities that exist relation to these issues, and documents the co‐existence of various systems within the same spaces as well as multiple formal and informal systems, which at points cohere and dovetail, but which also come into conflict with each other as people in each system ‘fight’ for a particular logic to take precedence. Diepkloof, Thokoza, and Doornfontein, are the three case study precincts and, like most places in South Africa, have their own stories to tell. The stories, told from the perspective of the land, demonstrate a narrative of dynamic transition, necessary, and sometimes quite painful, change. The areas themselves have undergone enormous changes in terms of their official mechanisms of control, the various boards, administrations and councils that have governed them and administered their uses and daily lives. And within these larger areas communities, households, and individuals have been effectively getting on with the business of living on the land, accessing it, using it, and trading it, either out of necessity or for profit. The formal systems of control, which have waxed and waned in their effectiveness, and the livelihood and life strategies of the people living within these systems have conflicted and complimented each other over time. No area or community is static and what follows is an attempt to understand and narrate some of the key moments of change in