Urban land grabbing and its implications to sustainable urban development a reflection from Oshitayi area, Ondangwa (Namibia)
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Date
2016-04
Authors
Shinguto, Simon
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
University of the Free State
Abstract
Land grabbing is not new as this concept can be traced back through centuries of human
history all over the world. Throughout the world, land either in rural or in urban areas, was
subjected to some form of grabbing. The main focus for this mini-dissertation was to seek
answers as to (1) why people (i.e. commercial and residential users) gradually choose to
grab strategic unplanned land within the townlands of Ondangwa, particularly in the Oshitayi
area; and (2) the implications of land grabbing to sustai nable urban development. The
objectives were to determine the reasons for land grabbing and what possible impacts (both
positive and negative) this land grabbing can have on the sustainability of urban
development. This mini-dissertation was theoretica l and relied mostly on qualitative data
collected using semi-structured in-depth interviews, document reviews and participant
observations. A sample size of 27 respondents was used to provide data for this minidissertation.
Fifteen respondents were randomly sa mpled from a group of 1 268 land
grabbers consisting of 1 054 commercial users and 214 res idential users occupying land
illegally in the Oshitayi area. Another 12 respondents were purposely sampled from a group
of 25 target population (i.e. six officials working for the Ondangwa Town Council as well as
six private professional town planners with experience and knowledge of the situation in the
Oshitayi area). Even though there is a globally accepted notion that land grabbing taking
place in many cities is fuelled by urban poverty, there are new reasons found for land
grabbing taking place in the Oshitayi area. The emerging picture of this type of land grabbing
is different from the usual accepted norm of pro-poor land grabbing whereby the poor people
who are unable to afford serviced land in urban areas are believed to grab any available
undeveloped urban land for shelter. This type of land grabbing was found to be more
"opportunistic" in nature which is observed not to have been founded on the ground of
seeking shelter. This means that the actors involved in this type of land grabbing knew what
they want with the land they are occupying and they are merely not the "urban poor". It was
evident from the findings that the reasons attributed to this type of land grabbing includes
investment opportunities being pursued by local entrepreneurs, the cumbersome and
bureaucratic legislative framework that is governing land delivery, opportunistic
compensations, poor institutional coordination and lack of public awareness/participation in
municipal agendas. Sporadic land grabbing was found to have positive implications for the
economic and social aspect of sustainability, whilst negative implications are eminent for
spatial and environmental aspects of sustainability with respect to urban development.
Description
Keywords
Land grabbing, Sustainability, Urban development, Sustainable development -- Namibia -- Ondangwa, Dissertation (M.U.R.P. (Urban and Regional Planning))--University of the Free State, 2016