Urbanization of Rural Areas Towards Spatial Justice and Rural Development in South Africa: A Theoretical Evaluation of Selected Cases

Abstract

Urbanization is one of the most essential features of spatial development, and it has historically been described using a few indicators on a somewhat coarse spatial scale also regarded as the mass movement of populations from rural to urban settings and the consequent physical changes to urban settings. However, urbanization encompasses not just land-use changes, but also socio-economic developments that may or may not emerge as physical deviations in the built environment and its land use. In South Africa, attitudes regarding urbanization are predominantly complex and vague, reflecting a history of institutionalized discrimination, urban segregation, and rural poverty. Additionally, the spatial link between population increase, employment opportunities, and availability of basic services and infrastructure as well as housing, is given special attention during urbanization. This urbanization has become excessive and unmanageable, resulting in unlawful land occupations, booming informal settlements, unparalleled housing constraints, overburdened infrastructure, and social instability. Given that rural development is mainly characterized by economic development, it has recently become appropriate for some countries to urbanize their rural areas with the hope of addressing backlogs in basic service delivery and infrastructure and most importantly the decentralization of economic activities ultimately achieving spatial justice and, South Africa is not an exception. Therefore, this paper seeks to theoretically evaluate the effectiveness of urbanization in South Africa's rural areas with the hope of achieving spatial justice and satisfactory rural development. The paper discovered that decentralization of economic services is mostly regarded as the main activity of urbanization in rural areas. Furthermore, the adopted approach is more likely implemented in townships that are more accessible to most of these rural areas rather than in these rural villages themselves. The paper concludes that urbanization of rural areas can potentially reduce poverty by enhancing economic growth, development and prosperity, permitting more effective public and private service delivery and infrastructure development in rural areas, and not just decentralizing selected economic services to nearby townships.