Analysing the effects of informal land markets on self-help housing in eThekwini Municipality: a case study of uMzinyathi.

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.