Ten years after the implementation of SPLUMA: a critical review of the planning system in South Africa

Abstract

The spatial planning and land use management system is the world in which urban and regional planning is practiced and functions. The framework of this system was fundamentally changed with the implementation of Spatial Planning and Land Use Management Act 16 of 2013 (SPLUMA), two years after it was promulgated, with an implementation target of five years. This study considers the domain in which planning functions and determines the functional system in which urban and regional planning functions. The entrenchment of the system in its given domain provides perspective and highlights certain aspects of planning that should be considered in its functional system. A reflection on the implementation of SPLUMA, through the lens of the local government project that implemented the said system and that stretched over four years, contributed to significant insights into the nuances entrenched in the planning system and emphasises certain issues that should have received more attention in planning and structure, as well as identifying certain gaps in the system. The administrative system in which planning functions, in terms of decision-making, is fully vested in local government in the foundational change brought about by SPLUMA and other mentioned influences, including the Constitution of 1996. The physical administration of spatial planning, land use planning and management underwent a fundamental change upon the enactment and implementation of SPLUMA, partly because section 33(1) of this Act provides that the municipality is the body of first instance for land use applications. The structural and administrative change of decisionmaking and record-keeping moved from being a dual system of land-use administration, formerly shared by the provincial government and the local government, entirely to being the responsibility of the local government. This included the land use administration of traditional areas, mostly land owned by national government. This also implies that the historical division between urban, rural, traditional and agricultural areas have been unified under the municipal area in terms of the wall-to-wall land use scheme and subsequent land use planning and development administration. This follows the 1996 constitutional requirement that municipal areas cover the entire country. This thesis considers the transformation of the spatial planning and land use planning administration and governance in terms of land use planning and development administration. It considers the legislative frameworks, before and after the promulgation of the Constitution of 1996, that inform land use planning and relevant to the transformation to the SPLUMA spatial planning and land use management system. The administrative effects that changing legislation and geographical structures have on the land use system are discussed.