Planning suburban service centres in Harare, Zimbabwe: a study of structure, use patterns and needs with special reference to retailing in high-density residential areas

Abstract

Since the attainment of Independence, urban and regional planning in Zimbabwe has been taking place in two different contexts. In the first, the role of planning is to initiate growth where none existed before. This type of planning may be termed, for analytical purposes, ‘initiative planning’. It particularly applies to rural development, where the objectives, among many others, arc the establishment of growth and service centres and of new agricultural settlements as part of the land redistribution programme. In the second context, the role of planning is to remedy the socially undesirable conditions inherited from the past and to direct development within already existing settlements towards the desired conditions. This second type of planning may be termed ‘remedial planning’, and is particularly necessary in urban areas where —as will be demonstrated in Section 1.3 and Chapter 3 — the ‘African’ (Black) sector of the population has until recently been deprived of full citizen status.