Pietermaritzburg is a vibrant African City set in the breathtaking beautiful Kingdom of the Zulus in KwaZulu Natal Midlands. Rich in history and heritage with South Africans mainly speaking IsiZulu, Afrikaans, English and Indian influences, the City is a cultural treasure-trove brimming with diversity and rainbow colour.
It is the Capital City of KwaZulu Natal and the economic hub of uMgungundlovu District Municipality. Its location in the Midlands rests as the umbilical cord of the Province where “all roads leads to the City of Choice”. The City is the choice of best schools, technikons and university, home of comrade marathon, the Duzi, the Midmar Miles, the Royal Agricultural Show, Garden Shows, Arts and Cars in the Park, Choice of Architectural heritage and close association with highly respectable individuals such as Gandhi, Mandela, Paton and many more.
Its location has a strong influence on regional channels of investment, movement and restructuring of the Provincial Spatial Framework for growth and development
Despite all the above competitive advantages, the City is challenged with growing unemployment, poverty and uneven development and infrastructural backlogs owed to apartheid spatial planning in the urban, peri-urban and rural areas.
The Capital City of Choice
By 2017 to be a Globally Competitive Metropolitan City of Choice which Capitalizes on its Strategic Location, Environment, Cultural Heritage and Educational Facilities in Creating a Choice Quality of Life for All.
The Integrated Development Planning is a tool or process that the municipality uses to produce an Integrated Development Plan which guides and informs all planning, management and decision-making to ensure that the municipality fulfills its service delivery and constitutional mandates and performance score-card.
An Integrated Development Plan must reflect:
- The municipal council’s vision of the long-term development of the municipality, emphasizing its most critical development and transformation needs;
- An assessment of the existing level of development in the municipality;
- The municipality’s development priorities and objectives;
- The municipality’s development strategies; A spatial development framework for the municipality;
- The municipality’s operational strategies;
- An applicable disaster management plan; A financial plan (three-year budget projection); and
- The key performance indicators and performance targets
Our Developmental Philosophy and Approach
This process is guided by public and stakeholders’ inputs; municipal and national targets; the State President, Premier and Mayor’s state of addresses or policy statements. Through these inputs, a consolidation process is undertaken to develop and refine developmental strategies and various operational plans to bring about financial, technological, infrastructural, social, institutional, environmental and spatial solutions towards the realization of the municipal strategic vision.
In order to transform some of the public needs, complaints and concerns raised by members of our communities, the Community Based Process (CBP) as a development tool will be used to channel our development energies towards ward based development plans and budgeting process. This approach will be based on reputable statistical data and feasibility studies conducted to respond to our developmental challenges and needs.
Benefits for Stakeholders from Participating in the IDP Process
