Twenty years into democracy, the South African government has demonstrated that it is a developmental state, with its policy frameworks that emphasise improving the quality of people's lives. In this process, the government has formulated various policy frameworks to enforce its developmental objectives. Thus, through the Department of Human Settlements, the government seeks to satisfy its developmental objectives by accelerating the delivery of human settlements and by using housing as a poverty alleviation and job creation strategy. Central to this strategic objective is the adoption of the human-centred and nature-centred approaches to settlement development and planning. The human-centred approach emphasises that the developmental needs and activities of people living in settlements must be catered for and, in particular, the residents must be offered more opportunities to achieve their maximum potential through their own eff