The Difference that Place Makes: Some Brief Notes on the Economic Implications of Moving from an Informal Settlement to a Transit Camp

Mark Hunter, Dept. Geography, University of Toronto, mhunter@utsc.utoronto.ca. August, 2010.

This document is a very brief case study exploring the economic implications of a small informal settlement’s relocation from King’s Rest, a place close to a railway station, dock, a relatively wealthy suburb at Durban’s Bluff, to a large transit camp near Orient Hills in Isipingo.

On the face of it the move should not have adversely affected the community: Isipingo is an industrial area of Durban and not a rural peripheral location—the site of many new RDP housing settlements. Moreover, on paper, the transit camp offers a healthier environment: communal toilets and water are provided and the housing structures are formally built.

However, with striking unanimity community members tell how their economic livelihoods have been undermined by this move; how their sense of autonomy has been disrupted; and how housing, sanitation, and water provisions–despite being “formal”–are, on the whole, worse.

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