This paper deals with urban development strategies in Cape Town, South Africa. It focuses on Cape Town’s planning strategy for the spatial and economic integration of the South East sector, where the majority of its informal settlements are located, with the priviliged sectors of the city. It discusses the Wetton-Lansdowne Corridor plan 1999-2004 within the Metropolitan Spatial Development Framework (MSDF) and examines how the planning initiatives for integration deal with the reality of informal settlements through the example of one of the settlements, Phola Park. Based on household survey data from 2000, the paper first discusses socioeconomic conditions in Phola Park, addressing the residential situation, demographic and socioeconomic trends and the level of infrastructure. It then turns to the planning strategies, briefly discussing their emergence, their aims, and the various planning assumptions in the corridor approach. These assumptions relate to the planners’ perception of specific realities, the relationship between the plan and the actors on the ground, the role of business and investors, and the notion that corridors are in fact catalysts of integration. The corridor or the MSDF do not seem to have had any impact on Phola Park to date. The planning strategies obviously considered neither the opportunities nor the obstacles that Phola Park presents for the implementation of the corridor. Bibliogr.
