Planning for health and wellbeing? Reflections on urban policy and practice in the City of Cape Town and Western Cape Province during the COVID-19 pandemic

ABSTRACT The COVID-19 pandemic presents a major disruption to urban systems in cities all around the world. As such, it is vital to use this moment as an opportunity to re-evaluate contemporary planning directions in the government structures of the City of Cape Town and the Western Cape Province. This article aims to do this by understanding the lessons that state-led COVID-19 responses hold for urban policy and practice in the City and Province in the future. It finds that, while it is too early to draw definitive conclusions about future planning directions, it is possible to reflect on early learnings from the events of the pandemic’s initial surge, particularly in the context of historical urban responses to public health crises.