Municipal Planning in South Africa has evolved since the dawn of democracy. Before
1994, planning in the local sphere of government was characterised by segregation
and disintegration of settlements and plans, respectively. After being welcomed back
to the international community, particularly the United Nations, South Africa engaged
in a process of reforming local government specifically - planning. As part of local
government reforms, Integrated Development Plans (IDP)s were introduced in 2002
as the main tools for integrated planning in local, district and metropolitan
municipalities. Integration requires that economic, social and environmental
development initiatives are integrated in order to achieve “sustainable development”.
During 1992, the United Nations Environmental Programme hosted a Conference on
Environment and Development (UNCED) in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The conference
developed and agreed upon specific principles of sustainable development which
member states were to institutionalise as part of their development agenda and this
culminated in the so-called “Agenda 21 Report”.