FALLING THROUGH THE NET: SUSTAINABILITY IN CLERMONT TOWNSHIP, DURBAN

Abstract

The current planning and restructuring of South Africa cities is being guided and regulated by a complex ‘net’ of integrated, parallel and divergent strands of planning, environment and development policy and legislation. Although sustainable development is not explicitly the hegemonic driver within current policy and legislation, the re-vamping of the policy arena does provide a framework by which the principles of sustainable development can be implemented. This paper argues that there are a wide range of environmental problems within the urban environment that are not being addressed due to the nature, scope and accessibility of procedures, policy and legislation available. The sustainable development agenda in South Africa has not yet adequately taken up the question of inequality and poverty. The point of intersection between criticality and vulnerability as discussed by O'Riordan and his colleagues is not being addressed adequately by the sustainability agenda as it is currently reflected in policy and action. In addition, it is argued that the implementation environment is falling short of addressing the essential principles of self-generation, precaution, empowerment and revelation. The implementation of sustainability goals in Clermont, a traditionally black township in Durban is used to illustrate that it is at the micro-scale that the sustainability challenge is most magnified and acute. A tremendous amount of energy has gone into steering Clermont along a sustainability pathway through the development of a local environmental forum. However, this paper suggests that institutional arrangements and socio-economic and political factors are placing limitations on the achievement of these ideals. The concept of a sustainability net has been used to illustrate how the attempts by marginalised communities, exposed to low density, long term risks, to embrace sustainability ideals, are being undermined, despite the apparently supportive legislative framework that currently exists.

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