Urban settlements such as townships are being created in rural areas which has raised concerns over ownership and the role of municipal authority.
- Urban settlements formed on the outskirts of cities are far cheaper for the average South African.
- Public infrastructure and basic services are provided through privatized services and investments.
- Community chiefs are granted more authority and jurisdiction over these urban settlements compared to the municipalities that govern them.
South Africa’s cities were never designed equally. Under Apartheid, millions of black South Africans were pushed to the outskirts of cities through policies such as the Group Areas Act, which enforced racial segregation and forced removals.
Decades later, the spacial legacy lives on as those policies continue to shape where people live.
The New South Institute (NIS) hosted a dialogue on March 11, 2026, with the emergence of urban settlements beyond conventional planning systems, specifically on land governed by traditional authorities, on the agenda.
In a research paper, Professor Andries du Toit, NIS affiliate researcher and his team argue that these “settlements should be recognized as a distinct South African urban form, an auto-constructed suburbia, under informal institutions.”
The houses built in these areas, like KwaMhlanga (Mpumalanga), Dassenhoek (eThekwini), Hammanskraal (Tshwane) and Kabokweni (Mbombela region), receive public infrastructure and services. These include roads, water and electricity, which are provided by private companies and/or private arrangements instead of their designated municipality.
“There is a limited investment in social and community infrastructure particularly in the form of churches – people who live in these areas are going to have to travel and spend a lot of time traveling to access education and various other social opportunities and services,” said Dr. Andrew Charman, NIS affiliate researcher.
The residents of these settlements are not given property with prospects of receiving a title deed, they are given a permission to occupy from the chief of the land. “It is not a deed of sale, you haven’t bought the land, you essentially paid the traditional authority for the service of allocation,” said du Toit.
Dr. Gaynor Paradza from the Public Affairs Research Institute (PARI) said, “At most a municipality owns like 12 percent of the land in its jurisdiction and sometimes as little as two percent – as a municipality [they] don’t even have a say on what is going on.” The chief of the land is able to make authoritative decisions granted that they have the support and consent of the community.
“The bottom line is that chiefs make decisions about land allocation, meaning that they are involved in town planning,” said Professor Mfaniseni Sihlongonyane head of the school of Architecture and Planning at wits university. “Maybe there are multiple visions of what cities should be especially in the African context,” he said.
As housing costs rise in central urban areas, many find themselves settling on land that is governed by traditional leaders on the outskirts of cities, as it is more affordable. But the flipside is that they aren’t catered for by the municipality they fall under.
FEATURED ARTICLES: The New South Institute (NIS) dialogue on working paper, Urban Settlements on Traditional Authority Land: Four case studies. From left to right: Dr. Gaynor Paradza, Prof. Mfaniseni Sihlongonyane and Dr. Ngaka Mosiane. Photo: Bonolo Mokonoto.
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