2010. Public Symposium: Mobility and Urban Growth in Post-Independence Southern African Cities. 30 Oct. 2010. University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa.

The Forced Migration Studies Programme, the Institute of Research for Development and the South African Local Government Association are pleased to invite you to the following event:

French International Research Cooperation Programme on “International migration, territorial transformation and development” Public Symposium:

Mobility and Urban Growth in Post-Independence Southern African Cities

Location: Hofmeyr House, East Campus, University of Witwatersrand

Provisional Programme

9:00 Breakfast & Welcome by Gilbert Kadiagala, Head, School of Social Sciences, Wits

9:30 Session 1. “It’s not our mandate”. Providing for people on the move in the region’s cities: legal frameworks & and political agendas.

Facilitator: Jan Rath, Chair, Metropolis International, University of Amsterdam

Roundtable participants:

• Remy Sietchipingm, UN Habitat, Nairobi. Mobility, local government and UN Habitat intervention: evidence from the region.
• Alphonse Munyaneza, UN High Commissioner for Refugees Pretoria and Protection Working Group. Urban refugees in Southern Africa: lessons for local governments, NGOs and UNHCR.
• Seana Nkhahle, Acting Executive Director: Strategy, Policy and Research, South African Local Government Association. Governing Migration and Urbanisation in SA Municipalities: Approaches to Counter Poverty and Social Fragmentation.
• Graeme Götz, Gauteng City Region Observatory. Better data for planning: The Gauteng City Region Observatory approach to data collection on migration and urbanisation.

11:00 Break

11:30 Session 2. “Ghettos”, “ethnic enclaves”, “translocal spaces”: developing diversity in selected African Cities.

Facilitator: Jorge Santibañez, Institute of Research for Development, Mexico

Roundtable participants:

• Loren Landau, FMSP, Wits. “Estuarial zones”: the changing functions of South African peri-urban areas.
• Dawn McCarthy, Director, Land Planning and Management, Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality. Addressing diversity and mobility challenges: perspectives from a South African municipality.
• Denise Malauene, Department of History, University Eduardo Mondlane, Mozambique. Matola: planning and mobility in a Mozambican satellite city.
• Lovemore Marisa, LOVENGO, Univ. of Harare. Urbanisation and transformation due to migration dynamics: Problems and Prospects for Governance of Mutare City Council, Zimbabwe.
• Stanford Taonatose Mahati, FMSP, Wits. Musina: Child migration in a border town. Challenges for policy-makers and service providers.

13:15 Concluding remarks

13:30 End of Public Symposium and buffet lunch.

Please RSVP Lenore Longwe, Lenore.longwe@wits.ac.za or (0)11 717 4033 by Thursday 28 October.

Southern Africa is among the most rapidly urbanising region in the world. Shaped by generations of capital accumulation and extraction, colonial planning, and human mobility, the region continues to be characterised by ever changing forms of settlement, segregation, and migration. While most of the region is urbanised or rapidly urbanising, the patterns of settlement in are governed by vastly different logics and regulatory frameworks in desperately poor Kinshasa, rapidly ‘emerging’ Maputo, or immensely wealthy Gauteng. Apart from the region’s primary cities, we find rapidly growing border towns of Zimbabwe and Mozambique, the deserted small towns of South Africa’s Eastern Cape or the peri-urban settlements in Malawi and elsewhere that act as gateways into and out of larger municipalities.

These dynamics call for both renewed scholarly inquiry and policy makers’ accrued attention. Despite their impact on economic and social development, inter- and intra-city and rural-urban flows as well as international migration have been largely neglected in public policy or spoken of only in times crisis or elections. Yet, as Southern African public administration continues to decentralise and devolve, local governments find themselves with increased responsibilities for managing mobility despite having little control over the causes and consequences of population movement.

Following a four-year research programme on “International Migration, Territorial Transformation and Development in Sub-Saharan Africa” – supported by the French Foreign Ministry –this symposium will draw on research conducted in Southern African cities to speak about these trends and the challenges they raise.

The symposium brings together specialised scholars from within and outside the region as well as policy makers and representatives of civil society in a dialogue structured around three key dimensions

1. Urban development & mobilities in Southern Africa: historical contexts, architectural and planning similarities and differences, mobilities and urban economic growth. Key question: What have been the respective roles of internal population movements and cross-border mobilities in shaping the region’s main urban centres?

2. Mapping population and urban space: Data collection issues and planning. . History of population planning in urban context: legacies and ruptures; current challenges. Key question: How have data collection mechanisms on population shaped Southern African cities and what is the legacy of this today