Central to the IDP is the process through which municipalities prepare a strategic development plan for a prescribed five-year plan. The Constitution of the Republic South Africa (1996), as indicated, establishes developmental duties to be assumed by municipalities. Section 153 of Constitution, in mentioning the developmental duties of municipalities, notes that a municipality must “structure and manage its administration and budgeting and planning processes to give priority to the basic needs of the community, and to promote the social and economic development of the community; and participate in national and provincial development programmes” (The Constitution, Act 108 of 1996:85).
In the same way, the Municipal Systems Act mentions integrated development planning in Chapter 5. As such, the act states that municipal planning must be developmentally-oriented. This means that:
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A municipality must undertake developmentally-oriented planning so as to ensure that it strives to achieve the objects of local government set out in section 152 of the Constitution;
gives effect to its developmental duties as required by section 153 of the Constitution; and together with other organs of state contribute to the progressive realisation of the fundamental rights contained in sections 4, 25, 26, 27 and 29 of the Constitution (Municipal Systems Act No 32, 2000:36).
The act also prescribes that:
Each municipal council must, within a prescribed period after the start of its elected term, adopt a single, inclusive and strategic plan for the development of the municipality which - links, integrates and co-ordinates plans and takes into account proposals for the development of the municipality: aligns the resources and capacity of the municipality with the implementation of the plan: forms the policy framework and general basis on which annual budget must be based; complies with the provisions of this Chapter; and is compatible with national and provincial development plans and planning requirements binding on the municipality in terms of legislation (Municipal Systems Act No 32, 2000:36).
Basically, an IDP must – among other things – reflect the municipal council’s vision for the long-term development of the municipality with special emphasis on the municipality’s most critical development needs as well as building its own organisational capacity to deliver on this vision.
In this respect, central to the Municipal Finance Management Act is the aim of modernising budget and financial management practices of municipalities by placing local government finances on a solid and long-term footing. Thus it seeks to “put in place a sound financial governance framework by clarifying and separating the roles and responsibilities of the mayor, executive and non-executive councillors and officials” (Municipal Finance Management Act No. 56 of 2003). In this way, it serves to maximise the capacity of municipalities to deliver services to all its residents, customers, users and investors. As noted above, all this legislation provides basic guidelines and directives in crafting and formulating an IDP, which in turn informs the character of an ITP.
The IDP for BCM was first developed and adopted in 2002 as a supposedly strong platform for pursuing and achieving integrated and sustainable development. For instance, one of the areas that were identified with a very high potential for development was the Mount Ruth Nodal Precinct, as a mixed land use node,based on its accessibility to and from the main railway line/station and feeder routes into Mdantsane as well as the fact that it is connected directly to the Mdantsane CBD. Overall, the IDP identifies and describes the significance of development nodes (or local growth points) and, in this context, makes
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reference to a range of infrastructure, amenities and services constituting a node: these include public transportation terminals, public facilities, the public spatial environment, housing, and manufacture and retail.
The current IDP runs from 2011 to 2016. With regard to public transportation, which of course is of particular concern to this thesis, an important theme that runs throughout the IDP is the integration of different modes of transportation, particularly public transportation (BCM IDP, 2011-2016). Clearly, then, the IDP is not simply about housing delivery, commercial buildings and industrial sites, though these are critical, but is also about improving the public transport sector and linking this to economic and market activities.
Buffalo City’s long-term vision (as found in its current IDP) emerged, at least as claimed, out of an in-depth analysis of the Buffalo City situation and developed, again at least officially, through intensive participatory processes. The municipality claims that, through its IDP, it is addressing three key challenges, as outlined below.
The first challenge is a RDP-style redistributive one in seeking to redress the racial legacies of apartheid. For instance, the IDP is seen as a tool for restructuring the spatial-apartheid land patterns and settlement in South Africa’s urban and rural areas, thereby overcoming spatial imbalances and promoting integration of human settlements. It is also a mechanism to promote social democracy, since the planning process is said to be participatory and permits all ‘stakeholders’ to have a voice in issues affecting their lives (Buffalo City IDP, 2002:6 Chapter 2). In addition, the IDP is supposed to address socio-economic inequalities along racial lines, and attempts to uplift the informal economy (which is dominated by poor blacks). Of particular interest in this regard is the Integrated Transport Plans with specific reference to integrating the taxi industry into the mainstream of economic development and redistribution, as discussed later.
The second and third challenges, which are not directly related to the topic of the thesis, but are of some significance, relate to questions about building local state capacity in delivering on socio-economic development and doing so in a manner based on accountability.
Thus, the second challenge is to build a new culture of local governance. The IDP is said to be a means of improving the quality of people’s lives through the implementation of integrated and sustainable programmes and projects (BCM IDP, 2011–2016). Most importantly, it is a mechanism to achieve local government transformation. The planning process is meant to determine the strategies and functions that will apparently lead to changes to municipal structures and processes, resulting in a range of operational strategies that are supposed to ensure that the municipality is able to deliver effectively, efficiently and
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economically on the development priorities, objectives, strategies, programmes and projects identified in the planning process (Buffalo City IDP, 2002).
The third challenge is fostering co-operative governance. Buffalo City argues that its IDP is intended as a mechanism to align and co-ordinate the plans and activities of the different spheres of government, as well as a mechanism of co-ordination within the local authority itself. The latter purpose is most important, since the IDP informs the basis for engagement between officials, councillors, citizens and other stakeholders, including engagement around such practical concerns as budget allocation (Buffalo City IDP, 2002).
Unless the BCM is able to build capacity and to democratise its systems of accountability, any attempt to formally integrate the taxi industry into local development plans and programmes will be hugely problematic. State bureaucratic inefficiencies and unresponsive local state systems will only serve to frustrate and possibly undermine the process of taxi industry formalisation.
The current Buffalo City IDP identifies the following infrastructure, services and facilities as needing urgent attention: housing, community halls, sports facilities, clinics and secondary schools, cemeteries, primary schools, police stations, crime and street lightning, youth and libraries, hospitals, disabled, mobile clinics, roads, water, electricity, public transportation, sewerage, sanitation, access to land, storm-water management, land tenure issues, clean public facilities, telephones and land use (BCM IDP, 2011-2016). Of particular importance to this thesis is public transportation but, given this long list of urgent requirements, the extent to which the BCM is able to prioritise any particular issue (including public transport) seems dubious. I now turn to discussing in some detail the BCM’s Integrated Transport Plan.