The following article appeared in the 1998 edition of Restorica, the journal of the Simon van der Stel Foundation (today the Heritage Association of South Africa). Jonathan Mercer, then Assistant City Engineer Planning for Port Elizabeth, posed some tough questions about planning and enforcement in our cities. Many of his points are still relevant today. Thank you to the University of Pretoria (Restorica copyright holders) for allowing us to publish the piece.
Cities in South Africa today are faced with an ever-growing demand for development. In many cases developers take the law into their own hands and proceed with development without necessary consent from the authorities. What is happening in Port Elizabeth can possibly be viewed as an illustration of what is taking place elsewhere...
One of the many aims of urban planning within a City's local authority is to ensure that land uses complement one another as growth and development occurs. It also aims to protect the interests of the broader community against what might be selfish interests of an individual developer. To achieve this, certain regulations and by-laws have been put into place over the years and these provide the necessary authority to ensure that persons who transgress them can be prosecuted.
However, in our fledgling democracy, many persons have interpreted the political change for the better as the right to do what they please, where they please, whenever they please, without any sense of responsibility and with apparent impunity. The blanket of lawlessness that has settled...
