Urban resilience is the focus of a global policy discourse that is being mobilized by a wide range of organizations to reduce urban risk and respond to the shocks and stresses facing cities. This paper explores the process of “governing for resilience” through Durban’s resilience journey as part of the 100 Resilient Cities (100RC) programme. From an insider perspective, it presents both 100RC and Durban’s approaches to developing a resilience strategy. It reflects on the contestations that emerged as Durban and 100RC struggled over the meaning and practice of urban resilience. The paper develops a continuum of urban resilience approaches to analyse the conflicts that emerged as the global programme of urban resilience travelled to, and landed in, a South African city. The paper argues that a global framing of urban resilience needs to be responsive to a world of cities that share common risk trajectories but have different contexts and vulnerabilities. (1)

This paper focuses on the planning implications of a dual governance system in Durban, where just over a third of municipal land is under the governance of both the traditional authority and the eThekwini Municipality. These challenges are common in many African cities where western administrative governance and planning systems overlay traditional systems. Under traditional governance, access to land, economic opportunities and “rural lifestyles” have resulted in the rapid densification of large areas of the periphery of Durban. Here, local traditional leaders allocate land based on the traditional land tenure system. eThekwini Municipality is mandated to provide services and facilities to all its residents, to develop spatial development plans and land use schemes, and to protect its ecological infrastructure. However, in traditional authority areas, the municipality struggles to fulfil these mandates, as it does not have control over land allocation and management. This paper reflects on the learning process that is taking place as the municipality begins to shift its approach to planning to address the complexities of planning in dual governance areas. The paper argues that new hybrid forms of governance and planning can help to address these challenges and ensure sustainable development in areas under dual governance.

Background: Biodiversity plays a critical role in improving the quality of life and resilience of poor urban communities in Durban. Objectives: However, the rapid densification that is taking place in the ‘rural periphery’ of the city is impacting significantly on the integrity of ecosystems, which provide valuable ecosystem services. It is also changing the relations between people and the environment. Mzinyathi and eSkebheni, in the north-west of Durban, are peri-urban areas located on Ingonyama Trust land and hence they are governed by both the traditional authority and the eThekwini Municipality. The settlement pattern is changing rapidly here as middle and upper income residents move into the area, changing the way of life from being rural and ‘traditional’ to urban and ‘modern’. Method: This paper focused on the nexus of rapid urban growth, dual governance systems, biodiversity loss and cultural change in these two areas. It adopted a qualitative methodology and social constructivist approach. Data on the value of environmental services in the area was collected through interviewing the traditional authority, provincial and municipal planners and environmentalists, and household members. Results: The paper revealed that environmental services are constructed in multiple ways within a particular socio-historical and political context, that they have value to peri-urban communities, and that their function and use is changing as a result of the ‘modernisation’ of the area. The impact of the dual governance system and traditional land allocation process on environmental services is significant. This has implications for long term sustainability, for the quality of life of peri-urban residents and for planning and urban governance.

This paper explores the evolution of the urban edge concept in the eThekwini Municipality between 2002 and 2013. It uses the theory of governmentality to analyse the discourses and practices of the local state as it attempts to manage rapid urban growth and restructure the post-apartheid city. It reveals how and why the current concept, the urban development line (UDL), with its associated practices, has become a dominant discourse in city policy- and decision-making. It then examines the contestations that have emerged around the holding of the line' and it reflects on the level of participation and political engagement that has taken place in the construction of the UDL concept. The paper argues that if the UDL concept is to play a meaningful role in the sustainability of the city in the future, its value and politics' need to be debated by multiple actors including politicians, officials, the private sectors and civil society within and beyond the boundaries of the Municipality.

Housing for the urban poor remains a significant challenge in South African cities. Post 1994 the South African state engaged in a large-scale housing programme delivering over 3 million state subsidised homes. However, housing policy since 2004 has shifted away from the delivery of housing units to the development of integrated human settlements. The national state has identified large scale mixed use projects, such as Cornubia in Durban, as the new approach. This paper explores the discourses constructed by multiple actors, including the national and local state, the private sector, technical experts (consultants) and civil society as they have shaped the development of this mixed use ‘housing’ project over time. The paper reveals the multiple ways in which space is constructed in a megaproject that is intended to address both pro-growth and pro-poor goals.

In South Africa, environmental management is a separate legal and institutional system parallel to planning, and the two are poorly integrated. This paper uses an institutional analysis of the relationship between environmental management and planning in the KwaZulu-Natal province to understand the tensions that arise. The basis for tension is identified in the divided legal and institutional systems; duplication in the regulatory systems; their overlapping but also divergent purposes; inadequate strategic plans; institutional divides; lack of capacity; as well as in divides arising from less tangible elements, including different discourses, practices, policy communities and identities. Movements towards integration need to consider both the formal system and these intangible dimensions.

Paper presented to the Environmental Decision-making workshop, School of environmental Sciences, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, September