ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on a complex case study of one of South Africa’s major cities in order to show how the shifts of national housing and upgrading policy have translated into local practice. It discusses the local actors have been unable to leave the beaten track although the former head of National Upgrading Support Programme regards the city’s upgrading strategy and plans as “some of the most progressive work that has been done in the country”. The chapter also discusses the reasons for the troubled coexistence of two contradictory approaches towards informal settlement upgrading. Buffalo City’s first Integrated Development Plan adopted in 2002 described the “rapid movement of people to urban areas and resultant explosive growth and multiplication of overcrowded, unsafe and unhealthy informal settlements” as one of the municipality’s major challenges. A site visit and conversations with beneficiaries confirmed that former garbage collectors have benefitted from the public investment.
