The Use of Spatial Frameworks in Regional Development in South Africa

The article examines and evaluates the use of spatial frameworks as a mechanism to support and guide regional development processes in South Africa, in the light of the renewed interest in spatial frameworks internationally. In South Africa, this new form of spatial planning arises from the need to co-ordinate and integrate development, and to begin to alter the distorted spatial patterns of the past. The article highlights problems confronting attempts at spatial planning in South Africa: the unresolved spatial tensions within government policy; the weak institutional position of integrative and spatial planning in relation to sectoral planning and interests; and the role of politics in spatial decision making. Despite these limitations, a learning process is occurring, and the importance of co-ordination is increasingly accepted.