The historical evolution of settlement patterns and trends in South Africa: Unlocking the log-jam of the unsustainable settlements impasse

Abstract

This article ascertains the underlying causes of the persistence of unsustainable settlement patterns and trends in post-apartheid South Africa. Despite positive development planning policy intentions in the post-apartheid South Africa, glaring deprivation and spatial inequality has persisted. The article is grounded in a chronological analysis of demographic, functional and regional economic dynamics at the different epochs of South Africa's history as well as the settlement policy and planning intentions. Its main finding is that the persistence of unsustainable settlement patterns and trends in post-apartheid South Africa is largely a result of misplaced settlement policies and strategies. They give knee-jerk responses to global, regional, national and local dynamics shaping settlement patterns and trends. The recommendation is that development planning initiatives should be informed by the dialectics of settlement facets at local, regional, national and global levels for them to deal decisively with the historical problem of unsustainable patterns and trends.