The urban renewal programme as an area-based approach to renew townships: The experience from Khayelitsha’s Central Business District, Cape Town Ronnie Donaldson a, * , Danie Du Plessis b a Department of Geography and Environmental Studies, University of Stellenbosch, P/Bag x 1, Matieland, Stellenbosch 7608, South Africa b Centre for Regional and Urban Innovation and Statistical Exploration, University of Stellenbosch, South Africa Keywords: Khayelitsha Black township Urban renewal Area-based approach Spatial targeting URP abstract In his state of the nation address in 2001, former President Mbeki announced the launch of the Urban Renewal Programme (URP) as an area-based approach to address poverty and underdevelopment in targeted areas, with specific emphasis on improving joint government planning and implementation. The URP focussed on 8 urban townships in the country as 10-year pilot schemes which would pave the way for a development strategy on urban renewal, to be implemented nationally at the end of the ten- year pilot period. In this paper we review the lessons learnt from the URP in Cape Town’s Khayelitsha node, focussing specifically on the development of the Khayelitsha CBD. This paper is based on quali- tative evidence obtained from the views and perspectives of a segment of programme stakeholders, supported by insights from a wide range of secondary sources, such as key reports on the URP. Six lessons learnt from the case study are discussed. These include the need for a flexible system of land-use management which can respond to both private and public-sector investment and requirements, care- ful consideration of the approach to informal trade within and in the vicinity of the development precinct, and the introduction of mechanisms to ensure that the spin-offs from private investment accrue to the benefit of local communities. Important elements determining the success of the project are also highlighted; these include addressing the high expectations of employment and skills development as part of the URP implementation process, and the need for dedicated project management resources and a project ‘champion’, who can engage with a variety of external role players. Finally the paper also reflects on the critical role of public investment and commitment required to leverage private investment and development. Ó 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Introduction ‘Townships or city: which to uplift first?’ was the central ques- tion posed two years into democracy by the CDE (1996). The chief argument of the study was for cities to become globally competi- tive, urban priorities should be chosen through an economic lens where urban policy will have to strike a balance between devel- oping infrastructure and services in the cities e in the face of inner city decay, big business flight, rising crime and unemployment e and infrastructure development in the townships. Five years later, former President Mbeki announced the inception of the Urban Renewal Programme (URP) as a nationally-initiated pilot policy to renew 8 urban nodes of deprivation in 6 South African cities’ townships. The announcement of the URP came shortly after South Africa had completed a structural reform process at the sub-national level, which resulted in the creation of nine provinces and 284 local governments, followed soon after in 2000 by the municipal elections (Cameron, 2005). All these events had an impact on the institutional psyche, which was still having to deal with yet another nationally-imposed institutional structure, namely the creation of a URP division within the selected municipalities. Urban renewal is a very broad concept with various meanings, depending on the approach to and interpretation of the concept. Within the context of the URP, as applied in the townships of South Africa, Turok’s definition provides a useful understanding of the approach, where urban renewal encompasses .measures explicitly designed on an area basis, rather than national or provincial sectoral policies on issues such as health * Corresponding author. E-mail address: rdonaldson@sun.ac.za (R. Donaldson). Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect Habitat International journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/habitatint 0197-3975/$ e see front matter Ó 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.habitatint.2012.10.012 Habitat International 39 (2013) 295e301