There has been a long history of interference with settlement patterns in South Africa: the evolution of the settlement system has been profoundly influenced by direct settlement policies tied to the changing face of the political economy. Indeed, settlement policies and programmes have arguably been the main planks of what has passed for national and regional planning in this country. More recently, however, in the face of turbulent political change, and informed by planning tendencies internationally, this focus on settlement planning has largely disappeared as has a concern with, and confidence in, regional planning generally.

As South Africa's attention turns slowly towards tackling the daunting development issues it faces, this is a timely moment to return to the question of whether or not there is a case for national or regional settlement policy and, if the answer is in the affirmative, what are the issues which should inform this? My focus in addressing this question is not on urban and rural settlement policies in toto but rather on concentrations of settlements - on the desirability or efficacy of policies relating to national and regional urban settlement systems.

My approach to the question is structured into five parts. The first reviews the historical record of settlement policy in South Africa. The second scans this record, as well as the international experience of settlement policy, in order to extract some major lessons. The third reviews contextually the argument for settlement policy and planning. The fourth returns to the main lessons in order to identify an appropriate philosophic approach to the task. The final section identifies the primary roles that national and regional settlement policy and planning should play and some of the issues it must address.

HISTORICAL SETTLEMENT-BASED POLICY INTERVENTIONS

Although there is a common tendency to regard the historical experience of South Africa as being unique (and, indeed, in some respects, particularly the single-mindedness with which it pursued objectives of racial separation, it is) it is important to recognise that there are marked similarities with other southern African countries with a significant scale of settler penetration (for example, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Malawi and, to a lesser extent, Angola and Mozambique) (Dewar 1994b) with respect to settlement-based policies.