Honourable MEC’s and Executive Mayors
Director General – Gilbert Lawrence
Municipal Managers
Distinguished Guests
Ladies and Gentlemen
Fellow people of the Western Cape
I am honored to address you at this launch of the Western Cape Provincial Spatial Development Framework, one of the lead strategies of iKapa Elihlumayo.
We have Langa to be the site of this launch as it presents us with a stark symbolism of both the past and glimpses of the future.
"Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth…’
Robert Frost, in his poem ‘The Road Less Travelled’ asks us to dig deep and search for the question – where do we go from here? The Western Cape is at a cross-road. In facing the challenges of growth and development we have two choices:
We can either continue on our current development trajectory characterised by urban sprawl and inequality - a space-economy that undermines social justice, exacerbates poverty and encroaches on our natural habitats and prime agricultural land.
Or we can choose a more difficult path of sustainability that meets the objectives of our triple-bottom line through development that promotes socio-economic justice, environmental integrity and economic growth.
What we know definitively is that a wise path will be based on an honest reflection of our past and a better vision of what this Province will be for future generations.
There was a time not too long ago when indigenous human societies lived in accord with Mother Earth. Their lifestyles and human settlements respected and responded to the rhythms and cycles of nature. This was a life of harmony based on sustenance. The wisdom of sustainability was inherent to these cultures and was passed from generation to generation via spoken word and action until more dominant regimes systematically deleted this knowledge in the name of enlightenment and progress.
The 19th Century Industrial Revolution combined with the later Modernism paradigm put us on a path of over-consumption of critical resources, unsustainable land-use patterns in the name of efficiency and progress. Our recent history of systematic race-based separate development distorted our space-economy.
Combined with the meta-narrative of Apartheid, spatial planning provided the framework by which black and coloured people were relegated to the physical and socio-economic fringes of society to live in the worst environmental and psychological conditions of overcrowding, minimal resource allocation and limited access to opportunities.
The Western Cape is at a critical cross-road. Scrutiny of the present performance of our urban and rural systems clearly highlights the level of stress we are under:
With a 14.3% per annum population growth rate, the Western Cape faces a 38% backlog in subsidised housing largely concentrated in The City of Cape Town, Eden and Boland areas. Over 500,000 people are unemployed. Increased in-migration will continue to put pressure on our already stressed infrastructure and facilities.
Our space-economy has historically been characterised by a ‘doughnut’ typology – a white core containing the economic centre with concentrated social services and amenities dislocated from racially discreet dormitories on its periphery.
Our water resources are under threat with 97% of all mainstream river ecosystems in the Western Cape are critically endangered owing to over-extraction of water, disturbances of riparian habitats and impacts of land use in catchment areas.
The biggest cause of river contamination in the metropole is result of waste water treatments producing sub-standard effluent combined with pump stations overflowing into rivers. This is within a context where only 20% of waste water treatment plants in the City of Cape Town comply with permit specification. Approximately R1.1 billion will be needed to bring these facilities up to standard.
7% of households in the Western Cape do not receive waste removal services. Of the existing waste disposal facilities in the City of Cape Town, there are only between 1 and 7 years of airspace remaining.
By 2008, the Western Cape will be facing severe energy shortages. This is within a context where electricity demand in South Africa is projected to exceed supply by the same year resulting in routine blackouts. The recent spate of black-outs in already indicates how close we are to this reality.
Climate change will see a significant rise in sea levels over the next 30 years which will have a negative impact on coastal livelihoods. Livelihoods based on natural resources like eco-tourism, fishing and agriculture will also be threatened – this will have a direct negative impact on job creation and retention.
Enrique Penalosa, former Mayor of Bogota said that the best indicator of a truly developed country is the laughter of children.
Frost speaks to the difficult choices that we will all have to make in this journey towards making the Western Cape truly ‘a home for all’ in its physical composition, access to amenities and quality of life.
Today we are launching one of the Lead iKapa elihlumayo strategies – The Provincial Spatial Development Framework.
The PSDF is at the cutting edge of work within the Western Cape. I recently returned from the UN Conference on Climate Change where urban planning and land use management where identified as critical to adaptation to and mitigation of climate change.
The PSDF is the tool by which we will deliver on 9 key objectives:
- Deconstruct the Apartheid structure of our urban settlements
- Reduce spatial discrimination and inefficiencies
- Conveniently locate urban activities and promote public and non-motorised transport
- Align future settlement pattern of the Western Cape Province with the location of environmental resources and economic opportunities
- Deliver human development and basic needs programmes wherever they are required
- Strategically invest scarce public resources where they generate highest returns
- Support land reform
- Ensure sufficient sufficient environmental capital for future generations
- Protect biodiversity and agricultural resources
- Minimise consumption of scarce environmental resources
The PSDF is reinforced by a number of guidelines including Guidelines on Golf Estates, Polo Fields and Polo Estates.
These guidelines have gone through extensive consultation and will promote a sustainable development approach towards decision-making about golf estates. This is informed by a triple-bottom line approach which looks at ecological protection, economic development and social justice.
Further documents include guidelines on Resort Developments and the Provincial Urban Edge Guideline. This is further reinforced by a study on the Growth Potential of Towns in the Western Cape.
Linked to this PSDF is our Intergrated Law Reform Process which dovetails with this framework to achieve integrated decision-making with regards to environment, planning and heritage approvals. Both these instruments are aimed at achieving predictability and cutting the cost of doing business in Our Province – in other words ‘cutting the red tape’.
Further to this I am pleased to announce that my Department and I will now embark on another innovative initiative. We will be conceptualizing and developing and action plan to deliver on an’ Environment Economy’. We believe the Western Cape is ideally placed to be the best practice model for mainstreaming ‘Ecosystems Services’ within the economic growth sectors of the Province. So Premier, watch this space!
Let us not look back at this moment in our history and regret that we didn’t choose the path of … Instead we should all be able to say that we chose a non-negotiable path based on the principles of…. We should all be able to look our grandchildren and great-grand children in the eyes and say:
‘I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
two roads diverged in a wood, and I --
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.’
‘The Road Less Traveled’ Robert Frost
Lynnette JohnsMedia Liaison Officer to Tasneem Essop
Provincial Minister: Environment, Planning and Economic Development
Tel: 021 483 3915 or 2769
Fax: 021 483 6081
