City profileGaborone
Research highlights
► Gaborone City and its peri-urban regions are increasingly interconnected. ► Informal, traditional and modern forms of land use co-exist. ► This has lead to conflict, the management of which has been handled inconsistently. ► The city economy is too dependent on mineral exports and requires diversification. ► Popular participation in planning is minimal and reflects entrenched inequality.
Introduction
There are a number of ways to understand urbanisation which are by no means mutually exclusive. One approach emphasises the benefits of cohesion afforded by successful management and internal dynamics. This angle is essentially interested in explaining successful cities, usually in the developed world, with links to the global economy being the sine qua non of ‘success’. Success is possible through a number of avenues: cultural capital and diversity (Florida, 2002), communicative and participatory decision-making (Healey, 1997) and an interactive, innovative complex of industrial clusters drawing on a range of economic sectors (Porter, 1990). Other approaches focus more on the developing world and not so much on success, as on coping, in the face of conditions that are sometimes extraordinarily difficult. Mechanisms emerge either formally or informally, legally or extra-legally, in the face of transitional and contradictory cultural and economic conditions. ‘Coping’ is explored through perspectives such as the extended metropolitan region (McGee, 1991) and a view of the city as a site where attempts at reconciling tradition and modernity are played out (Balbo, 1993). And in addition, ‘While it is well known that urbanization is affected by several factors, the driving functions of the exploitation of resources should not be neglected’ (Shen, Cheng, Gunson, & Wan, 2005, p. 289).
Gaborone is both engaged with the global economy through the urban-based administration of massive diamond exports, and is successful, particularly in comparison with other African cities, in terms of its orderly civil society, lack of obvious slums, relatively high levels of income and education and, if it were not for the ravages of HIV/AIDS, the general health of its population. Thus it provides an opportunity to reconsider the range of contemporary ideas on cities in the context of the developing world. For in Gaborone, we have what is a fairly rare situation: a city that seems a model both in terms of development and governance. In this profile, the ideas on urbanisation noted above are touchstones to guide an examination, from a planning perspective, of Gaborone, the capital of Botswana. Attention will focus on the growth of the capital. In order to approach an understanding and to draw out the implications of this growth, we further refine the examination by considering housing provision, rights to land ownership and public participation – undoubtedly recurring concerns for studies in democracy and development in urban settings.
Section snippets
Gaborone in context
When Botswana gained independence in 1966, it was one of the poorest countries in the world, with the nation’s budget financed by foreign grants, particularly from the UK. The agricultural sector contributed over 50% of GDP and beef was the leading foreign exchange earner. Only 4% of the population lived in urban settlements (Kalabamu, 2004). However, the defining economic moment of the new nation was the opening in 1967 of a diamond mine at Orapa in the central area of the country by De Beers,
Urban form
As a city that was literally created in the 1960s, Gaborone lacks heritage architecture. The oldest colonial buildings around the site of the original Fort Gaborones are in a state of disrepair, ignored by authorities and tourists alike. But Gaborone also lacks obvious African architectural ‘motifs’ that might distinguish it. It is then in appearance, the quintessential ‘modern city’ and, it has to be said, quintessentially bland. With the exception of Old Naledi, the orginal squatters’ camp,
Urban growth in an African city: From Gaborone to ‘Greater Gaborone’
The built-up area of Gaborone is almost entirely state-owned land. Gaborone’s expansion has been curtailed to the east by Gaborone Dam and the South African border. This has left surrounding freehold farms and tribal lands lying in other directions as the area where urban expansion has occurred. This has created special problems, in the form of alienation of productive farmland and an at times confusing co-location of traditional and modern land rights.
The original development plan for Gaborone
Overview
The overarching planning document in Botswana is the National Development Plan. There have been ten such plans since 1968, and they are in force for 6 years (Molebatsi, 2004). More specifically, the basis of land use decisions in Gaborone is the Town and Country Planning Act (1977). Gaborone is almost entirely State Land and as such, is administered by the Town and Country Planning Board (TCPB). Development of the legislation was greatly influenced by reports of foreign experts visiting
Conclusion: Future prospects
Diamond revenue has been at the centre of the political and economic ‘miracle’ of Botswana and the relatively prosperous conditions in the capital. It can play a role in addressing Gaborone’s outstanding urban issues if the benefits are directed into particular areas that have hitherto been neglected. These include research and development, manufacturing, public transport, and public housing which is accessible to all low income groups. Relatedly, the city economy should be diversified, so that
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank Professor Kenneth Good and Associate Professor Dave Mercer of RMIT University, Melbourne, the editor of Cities and an anonymous reviewer for their helpful comments in the writing of this article and Chandra Jayasuriya of The University of Melbourne for providing cartographic services.
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