Abstract
Urbanisation has been globally recorded as an accelerated growth of an area that has been caused by pull factors towards urban areas. The urbanization is influenced by factors which include the length of time to formalize relocation sites aimed at addressing the very problem, which is exacerbated by the unlawful invasion of such land parcels. Section 26 of the Constitution of South Africa Act 106 of 1996 and the Prevention of Illegal Eviction Act, Act 19 of 1998 protects occupants/invaders of land from eviction by land owners and other stakeholders, provided such invasion took place more than six (6) months from the date of an interested and affected party lodging an interdict with the court of law. The findings indicate that three (3) out of 13 (23%) of the strategic land parcels identified were invaded by informal settlements between the temporal period of 2017 up to 2022 (5 years). Most of the invasions were on sites proximal to existing road networks, and functional nearby settlements. All other 10 sites had not experienced any form of invasion as a result of a lack of infrastructure, services, and socioeconomic activities. The lack of change shows the inefficient developmental acumen of the local municipality – with more sites being informally developed as opposed to development initiative by the council as outlined by the respondents, who also believe the state should be fully responsible for the value chain of growth in individual sites. Key recommendations, based on the limitations of the paper, are that higher resolution daily satellite imagery is required for the more effective assessment of change detection of land invaded by informal settlements over time as a result of poor mechanisms in place to detect encroachment by informal settlements over strategic land parcels in the city.