A MULTI CRITERIA DECISION URBAN DEVELOPMENT FRAMEWORK FOR LAND EXPROPRIATION IN SOUTH AFRICA: A STRATEGIC APPROACH

Abstract. The land question in South Africa has been a long-standing issue for more than 360 years. Consequent to unjust legislation such as The Natives Land Act No.27 of 1913 to this day, there is a racial imbalance in the distribution of land ownership in South Africa. Coupled with the socio-economic and spatial segregative mandates of the apartheid-government to enrich the white minority, such unjust legislation fostered mass-land dispossessions and displacements of black people relocating them to peripheral areas known as ‘Bantu stands’ where they were further ethnically grouped in remote from socio-economic opportunities. The preceding has resulted in the impoverishment of the black people as they no longer had land – their primary source of livelihood. The limited access to land by black people remains true in post-apartheid South Africa.

Since the dawn of democracy, limited access to urban land has coursed challenges for housing development. Spatial transformation towards socio-economic integration has also become problematic as large areas of strategically located land remain locked in the hands of the minorities. Thus, to realise the mandates of South Africa’s democratic government – equal access to land and opportunities, this land needs to be acquired, particularly for the previously disadvantaged, poor, and landless.

As cities move towards being smart, this research will demonstrate the use of Evidence Based Planning (EBP) in order to assist Local Government to foster scientific decision making methods. The use of the Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA), Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) and Geographic Information System (GIS) as a method to develop a Strategic Urban Development Decision Framework (SSUDDF) as a Planning Support System (PSS) that will be used to investigate the best suitable land for possible expropriation. Various criteria such as proximity to road connectivity, proximity to current and future economic activity, proximity to public transport routes, dolomitic land, priority areas and proximity to city centres are some of the criteria selected for the research. The Strategic Spatial Urban Development Decision Framework (SSUDDF) enabled us to stream line significant criteria and processes that where specific to strategic urban development in the Benoni town situated in the City of Ekurhuleni using critical spatial policy and strategic objectives of the city.