The ethnographical interpretivist study analyses how informal development is planned and regulated by customary land management systems (CLMS) and the collaboration between the customary regulation of informal development and urban planning of informal settlements in Cape Town. The combination of zoning bylaws and CLMS creates a legal grey zone in the townships. The CLMS has polycentric authority structures and a hybridity of regulatory practices. It delegitimises zoning bylaws, but it also creates a new role for urban planning away from traditional technical management by specialists to a more pragmatic and selective enforcement of zoning by lower-level municipal officials based on common law and substantial relations tests, in close collaboration with local councillors, the police and public representatives linked to CLMS. Although this is by no means without its challenges, such as the disregard of building lines, waste removal challenges and illegal electricity connections, it does, however, strengthen the role of the state as a final and objective authority and benevolent provider of services. Informal settlements, thus have the best of both worlds: a formally planned substructure and an informalised top-structure that provides citizenship and agency to the subaltern.

民族志解释主义研究分析了非正式发展如何通过习惯土地管理系统 (CLMS) 进行规划和监管，以及非正式发展的习惯监管与开普敦非正式住区的城市规划之间的协作。分区章程和 CLMS 的结合在乡镇创造了一个合法的灰色地带。CLMS 具有多中心权威结构和监管实践的混合体。它使分区章程合法化，但它也为城市规划创造了一个新的角色，从传统的专家技术管理转变为由下级市政官员根据普通法和实质性关系测试更务实和有选择性地执行分区，与与 CLMS 相关的地方议员、警察和公众代表。尽管这绝非没有挑战，例如无视建筑线路、废物清除挑战和非法电力连接，但它确实加强了国家作为最终和客观权威和仁慈的服务提供者的作用。因此，非正式住区具有两全其美的优势：正式规划的子结构和非正式的顶层结构，为底层提供公民身份和代理权。