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3 eThekwini’s Green and Ecological Infrastructure Policy Landscape
River Watch (PRW), the Wildlife and Environment Society of Southern Africa
(WESSA) and the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN). The municipal officials
who were interviewed are all directly involved in green and ecological infrastructure
enterprises, and the interviewees from the other institutions are, to a certain extent,
mainly involved in collaboration with the municipality’s green and ecological infrastructure projects. The individuals who were questioned have a first hand knowledge
of the natural environment and municipal governing systems that are linked to the
infrastructure types.
The chapter consists of several sections, the first of which gives a socio-economic
and bio-physical description of the municipality. In Sect. 3.3, I describe the methodology that was used to gather the information, as well as how the data were analysed,
using the PULSE
3 analytical framework. In Sect. 3.4, I will present the analysis of
the paradigm and theory assessment, as well as the perspectives, causal mechanisms
and critical and problem-solving theories, before ending with a conclusion.
3.2 The eThekwini Metropolitan Municipality
The eThekwini Metropolitan Municipality is the local authority that governs the city
of Durban, which is situated on the east coast of South Africa in the KwaZulu-Natal
Province . Regarding its geographical reach and population size, eThekwini covers
an area of 2297 km
2 and in 2016 it was home to 3,555,868 people. The municipality
has pockets of rural communities on the western, southern and northern outskirts of
the densely populated urban centre (StatsSA 2016; Meissner et al. 2018a, 2019).
In the 2016 municipal elections, the African National Congress (ANC) won a
majority of 56.01% of the votes and 126 seats on the municipal council. The secondlargest party, the Democratic Alliance (DA), garnered 26.9%, giving it 61 council
seats. The Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) received 4.2% and 10 seats, followed by the
Economic Freedom Fighters’ (EFF) with 3.4% and 8 seats (IEC 2016). During this
election, the ANC retained all 126 seats, while the DA gained 18 new councillors
(Hogg 2016).
In terms of the South African economy, Durban is an important port city (see
Figs. 1.4, 3.1 and 3.2) (Corbella and Stretch 2012), with a large shipping container
terminal regarding container shipping into and out of the port of Durban. Mutombo
(2014) indicates that it handled 2.6 million Twenty-foot Equivalent Units (TEUs) in
2012, compared to the 0.7 million TEUs in each of the Cape Town, Port Elizabeth
and Ngqura ports. Long-term forecasts show that Durban’s capacity could increase
to 9.5 million TEUs in 2043, compared to 5.4 million TEUs for Port Elizabeth and
Ngqura, and 2 million for Cape Town (Mutombo 2014). These figures confirm the
port’s status as South Africa’s largest container terminal. The port is also closer to
South Africa’s economic hub in Gauteng than the other two major ports, i.e. it is
570 km away, as opposed to Port Elizabeth and Ngqura and Cape Town, which are
1070 km and 1400 km away, respectively (Mutombo 2014).
3 eThekwini’s Green and Ecological Infrastructure Policy Landscape
River Watch (PRW), the Wildlife and Environment Society of Southern Africa
(WESSA) and the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN). The municipal officials
who were interviewed are all directly involved in green and ecological infrastructure
enterprises, and the interviewees from the other institutions are, to a certain extent,
mainly involved in collaboration with the municipality’s green and ecological infrastructure projects. The individuals who were questioned have a first hand knowledge
of the natural environment and municipal governing systems that are linked to the
infrastructure types.
The chapter consists of several sections, the first of which gives a socio-economic
and bio-physical description of the municipality. In Sect. 3.3, I describe the methodology that was used to gather the information, as well as how the data were analysed,
using the PULSE
3 analytical framework. In Sect. 3.4, I will present the analysis of
the paradigm and theory assessment, as well as the perspectives, causal mechanisms
and critical and problem-solving theories, before ending with a conclusion.
3.2 The eThekwini Metropolitan Municipality
The eThekwini Metropolitan Municipality is the local authority that governs the city
of Durban, which is situated on the east coast of South Africa in the KwaZulu-Natal
Province . Regarding its geographical reach and population size, eThekwini covers
an area of 2297 km
2 and in 2016 it was home to 3,555,868 people. The municipality
has pockets of rural communities on the western, southern and northern outskirts of
the densely populated urban centre (StatsSA 2016; Meissner et al. 2018a, 2019).
In the 2016 municipal elections, the African National Congress (ANC) won a
majority of 56.01% of the votes and 126 seats on the municipal council. The secondlargest party, the Democratic Alliance (DA), garnered 26.9%, giving it 61 council
seats. The Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) received 4.2% and 10 seats, followed by the
Economic Freedom Fighters’ (EFF) with 3.4% and 8 seats (IEC 2016). During this
election, the ANC retained all 126 seats, while the DA gained 18 new councillors
(Hogg 2016).
In terms of the South African economy, Durban is an important port city (see
Figs. 1.4, 3.1 and 3.2) (Corbella and Stretch 2012), with a large shipping container
terminal regarding container shipping into and out of the port of Durban. Mutombo
(2014) indicates that it handled 2.6 million Twenty-foot Equivalent Units (TEUs) in
2012, compared to the 0.7 million TEUs in each of the Cape Town, Port Elizabeth
and Ngqura ports. Long-term forecasts show that Durban’s capacity could increase
to 9.5 million TEUs in 2043, compared to 5.4 million TEUs for Port Elizabeth and
Ngqura, and 2 million for Cape Town (Mutombo 2014). These figures confirm the
port’s status as South Africa’s largest container terminal. The port is also closer to
South Africa’s economic hub in Gauteng than the other two major ports, i.e. it is
570 km away, as opposed to Port Elizabeth and Ngqura and Cape Town, which are
1070 km and 1400 km away, respectively (Mutombo 2014).