Urban autonomy in South African intergovernmental relations jurisprudence

Are cities making the most of their legal powers? Marius Pieterse from the School of Law will deliver the next Faces of the City seminar.

As cities around the world increasingly assert themselves against national or regional governments, and as it becomes clear that effective urban governance is essential for achievement of goals expressed, for instance, by SDG 11 and the New Urban Agenda, the scope of the formal powers of urban local government is increasingly contentious. This is so especially in resource strapped and politically divided contexts, where turf wars over control of the urban form and function are increasingly commonplace. While urban autonomy and independence depends on various factors, the law – importantly – shapes them. This seminar is based on a paper that analyses the judgments of South African courts in intergovernmental disputes involving local government, in an effort to ascertain the legal parameters of urban autonomy and the scope for independent urban governance, in South African constitutional law.

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