Analysing the effects of informal land markets on self-help housing in eThekwini Municipality: a case study of uMzinyathi.
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Date
2021
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Abstract
The main aim of the study is to analyse the influence of vernacular land markets on self-help
housing and its implications on dweller control using uMzinyathi in eThekwini Municipality
as a case study. This study assesses the traditional institutions and practices of the impacts of
the customary land tenure on self-help housing in eThekwini Municipality. The study analyses
the factors that drive the development of vernacular land markets at uMzinyathi. More
specifically, the study examines the process and procedures for local recognition of the
transaction of land for housing in uMzinyathi; and identify actors and policies that shape the
vernacular land markets in eThekwini Municipality. Overall, the study was to dissect the
impact of vernacular land markets on self-build housing in uMzinyathi and its suggestions on
dweller control.
The study has used the theory of neo-institutionalism where views from historical
institutionalism and rational choice institutionalism helped to gain insights into the influence
of vernacular land markets on self-help housing in South Africa and its implications on dweller
control. The study adopts a qualitative research approach which helps with instruments suited
to assess practices and impacts of the customary land tenure on self-help housing in eThekwini
Municipality. Semi-structured interviews conducted with stakeholder directly involved in
vernacular land markets and self-build housing. Moreover, secondary data from government
sources and municipal policies were used in order to triangulate both secondary and primary
sources of data.
The study findings reveal that admission to land in most sub-Saharan Africa nations is
proceeding to be dictated by indigenous frameworks of land residency that developed after
some time under both provincial and nearby impacts. This study found that the nature of people
experiencing the freedom to build is found within communal areas. Overall, the study
recommends that bottlenecks affecting “freedom to build” and “dweller control” should be
removed considering that there are patterns of good quality of self-help housing development
taking place in peri-urban spaces.
Description
Masters Degree. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban.