The sub-Saharan cities are growing and changing due to immigration and modernization. One of the consequences of the current urbanization is that an increasing number of families residing in peri-urban areas of small rural towns lack access to basic municipal and ecosystem services. The purpose of the paper is to demonstrate the impacts of peri-urban expansion on municipal services provided by the governments and on ecosystems services through a case study of a small rural town called Makhado Biaba in Limpopo Province of South Africa. Makhado Biaba has been experiencing incessant rapid physical expansion over the years. Such spatial expansion into the peri-urban zone impacts the provision of municipal services such as water, electricity, sewerage, and refuse collection. In 2020, an exploratory mixed-methods study of some anthropocentric and ecosystem changes in Makhado Biaba Local Municipality in northeast South Africa was executed. Land use was mapped for the time period of 1990–2020, data were gathered through a household questionnaire in six villages, and interviews were held with municipal officials. Among others, the study showed that several municipal services are available in the peri-urban villages of Makhado Biaba Town despite the distant locations outside the urban core. However, services are not uniformly distributed due to that new peri-urban developments that are leapfrogging into vacant land without supporting infrastructure. The pace of the municipality in providing the necessary municipal services such as water and energy supply, as well as sanitation and refuse removal, is lagging behind the development of new and unplanned housing areas. The findings bring about information about the suburban livelihoods and how the administration of the peri-urban areas can respond to the needs of the inhabitants as well as to future challenges. For instance, to facilitate local development, recurrent and well-structured citizen dialogs with local groups to identify delivery failures are strongly recommended. In addition, the impact on ecosystem services by the city development and land use change stresses the need for guided urban development and expansion and also settlement upgrading programs in peri-urban zones to limit the bad effect on ecosystem services.

In the face of unstoppable urbanisation, disaster risks are projected to increase, mainly in unplanned areas that usually lack disaster risk reducing infrastructure. In Africa, including South Africa, limited resources and capacity hinder the provision of such infrastructure. The objective of this study was to determine options for promoting disaster risk reducing infrastructure in informal settlements in Giyani Municipality, Limpopo Province, South Africa, a disaster risk-prone area. A case study was conducted to collect primary data from purposively selected experts and the SWOT factors from the Integrated Development Plan Report of 2019/2020. A TOWS analytical hierarchical process was applied to pairwise comparisons of factors to prioritize them using eigenvalues and generate strategic options for promoting disaster risk reduction infrastructure in the informal settlements of Giyani Local Municipality. In the TOWS results, the experts suggested integrating traditional authorities into the municipal development processes, implementing an environmental framework that includes disaster management policies and an integrated waste management plan, and developing innovative technological projects that provide up-to-date spatial planning data to provide disaster risk reducing infrastructure in informal areas. This study concludes that the provision of affordable housing, clean regular piped water, storm and sewer drainage systems, street lighting, accessible routes, solid waste collection, electricity, and healthcare services would reduce a range of disaster risks.

The struggles of women to access and hold landuse and other land property rights under the customary tenure system in peri-urban communal areas is increasingly becoming a cause for concern. These debates are revealed using a case study of a peri-urban communal area called Domboshava in Zimbabwe. Women living in this peri-urban communal area struggle to access and hold landuse and other land property rights registered under their names. The aim of this paper is to present an analysis of the struggles faced by women to access and hold landuse and other land property rights in Domboshava. This paper is a product of a literature review on land property rights, land tenure systems, and peri-urbanity more generally. Field data was intermittently collected in the peri-urban communal area of Domboshava over a period of four years from 2011 to 2014, as well as through post-research social visits stretching to 2019. Thirty-two women were conveniently selected and interviewed. I applied Anthony Giddens’ structure-agency theory as a framework of analysis. The struggles to access and hold landuse and other land property rights by women are rooted in land transactions, social systems including the customary land tenure, patriarchy, as well as the peri-urban context of Domboshava. Responsible authorities on land administration in communal areas need to acknowledge the existence of new and invented ways of accessing and holding landuse and land property rights under the customary land tenure system, as well as to find ways to mobilize more opportunities for women on the peri-urban land market.

Town and Regional Planning is a South African accredited journal for independently adjudicated research articles on applicable topics in town, urban and regional planning. Each peer refereed article is indicated as such in the journal. The editorial staff considers articles in English and Afrikaans, written from any responsible point of view on subjects in any applicable field of scholarship, i.e. town, urban and regional planning. Authors are requested to write their manuscripts in a manner and style that is intelligible to specialists and non-specialists alike. Research contributions, which are peer reviewed, are of two kinds: Review Articles and Research Articles. Book reviews are also considered.

Peri-urban communal areas close to bourgeoning cities in sub-Saharan Africa are increasingly under various disaster threats, from social, environmental and institutional perspectives, as a result of urbanisation and migration. Residents of these communal areas have taken land matters into their hands, which leads to diverse land transactions. This study aimed to emphasise risks and hazards arising from land transactions taking place in a peri-urban zone of Domboshava, Zimbabwe, situated close to Harare, the capital city. Land transactions in this area include land exchanges through buying, renting and, in some cases, land grabbing. Because land transactions are on the increase in Domboshava, risks and hazards could potentially develop in social, environmental and institutional terms. Appropriate planning techniques and principles are solely needed to avoid potential disasters.

Town and Regional Planning is a South African accredited journal for independently adjudicated research articles on applicable topics in town, urban and regional planning. Each peer refereed article is indicated as such in the journal. The editorial staff considers articles in English and Afrikaans, written from any responsible point of view on subjects in any applicable field of scholarship, i.e. town, urban and regional planning. Authors are requested to write their manuscripts in a manner and style that is intelligible to specialists and non-specialists alike. Research contributions, which are peer reviewed, are of two kinds: Review Articles and Research Articles. Book reviews are also considered.