Local self-determination: Facing off mining through the use of land-use planning law

The Society, Work and Development Institute (SWOP) will host Tracy Humbly (SWOP Research Associate) to present this research seminar.

The seminar will focus on formal institutions of local government and the governance values, institutions and processes associated with land-use planning as a form of resistance to the authorisation of mining by national authorities.

The constitutional framing of local government authority in South Africa, together with the legal contestations that have taken place around the meaning of ‘municipal planning’, have afforded local authorities powers to determine the mix of land uses (residential, conservation, agricultural, industrial) in their areas of jurisdiction, and thereby also their political and economic base.

However, where local authorities do wish to reserve parcels of land for agriculture, food and water security, and conservation, they are challenged on the basis that these areas of governance are national competencies.

The seminar will draw on two case studies involving proposed coal mining in the Emakhazeni Local Municipality to illustrate the continuing challenges local authorities face.

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