As part of its provision of technical support to municipalities and provinces, the HDA conducts capacity-building workshops.
The HDA has embarked on a process to frame and package a document and a series of provincial workshops on various forms of incremental tenure, which can be applied in the upgrading of peri-urban to semi-rural informal settlements commonly found within provinces that are largely rural in nature. Four case studies have been identified in Limpopo, the Northern Cape, North West and KZN.
One of the most important aspects of informal settlements upgrading, especially incremental upgrading, is the issue of land tenure. Once communities have security of tenure (and this can take many forms), they are more willing to participate with government in the upgrading process, particularly with improvements to their own homes.
Formal legal tenure for informal settlements’ residents is challenging and complicated, and this is often exacerbated on tribal land and communal land.
The HDA has been working with SERI/Development Works on a process to frame and package a document on incremental tenure options, with emphasis on informal settlements situated on tribal land and/or communal land. The process started with three provinces that are largely rural in nature – Limpopo, North West and the Northern Cape – but, at the request of NDHS/NUSP, the study has been expanded to KwaZulu-Natal, another province experiencing similar land tenure issues in tribal authorities. Land administration in these contexts is under the authority of traditional or tribal authorities. The work, in partnership with SERI/Development Works, will focus on tenure security and aims to explore the specific challenges, as well as possible recommendations for securing tenure in informal settlements situated on traditional authority land in communal areas.
A workshop to present the preliminary findings and recommendations was held on 27 January and attended by HDA staff, researchers, NGOs working in informal settlements and NUSP. The feedback from the workshop will assist with the next phase of the work – framing and packaging of four provincial workshops in Limpopo, North West, the Northern Cape and KZN, where the findings and recommendations will be presented to broader provincial stakeholders as well as the relevant sector departments.
A follow-up workshop was held in the Northern Cape. Its aim was to embark on a process to frame and package a document and workshop about incremental tenure options with particular emphasis on informal settlements that are situated on tribal and/or communal land in the Northern Cape Province. The municipalities in the province that are on tribal and/or communal land are Phokwane, Joe Morolong and Ga-Segonyana.
As set out, the following objectives of the workshop were achieved:
Attendees welcomed the findings of the workshop. It was attended by the Department of Public Works, officials from the district and local municipalities, as well as Co-operative Governance, Human Settlements and Traditional Affairs (COGHSTA) officials.
