This paper reflects on the trajectory that urban development associated with the 2010 Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) World Cup has taken in South Africa. The argument suggests that a unique moment has been lost regarding the ability of the World Cup to serve as a catalyst for urban development. This notion is supported by a digest of the international literature which takes a cautious stance in its assessment of the benefits of mega-events. Hence, this paper posits that it is unlikely that poverty alleviation, as a result of fasttracking South Africa's urban development impetus, will constitute a significant outcome of the World Cup. Rather, development benefits in cities are likely to be fairly circumscribed. Legacy, the paper argues, should therefore advance beyond an exclusively pro-poor language. In this regard, vigorous public debate is required to arrive at a national consensus of what kind of legacy the 2010 FIFA World Cup is realistically able to achieve.

Against a backdrop of definitions and conceptual clarifications of the term urban policy, including its expression in the developing world-and Africa, in particular-this paper reviews the trajectory of urban policy in South Africa post-1994 and comments on future directions and plausible scenarios. In a highly specific context-dependent analysis, the paper argues that, in the first 10 years of democracy, we have seen the creation of democratic, integrated development local government, mass delivery of housing and services, a finely crafted array of capital and operating subsidies for delivery to lowincome households, and a number of programmes intended to enhance the capacity of local government to undertake delivery. All of these have been centrally driven. The counterpoint to the national perspective and frameworks, the paper argues-and in evidence over the past 5 years, in particularis the increasingly robust role and influence of cities in setting the urban agenda and, in effect, leading urban policy. The paper concludes by examining the many points that contribute to this view. The Nature of Urban PolicyThe development of most urban areas is influenced, to some degree, by the processes of urban policy and urban planning. Urban policy and planning are generally concerned with the management of urban areas. They are state activities that seek to influence the distribution and operation of investment and consumption processes in cities for the 'common good'. However, it is important to recognise that urban policy is not confined to activity at the urban scale. National and international economic and social policies are as much urban policy if defined by their urban impacts, as is Urban Forum (land use planning or urban redevelopment. In effect, urban policy is often made under another name. Urban policy and planning are thus dynamic activities whose formulation and interpretation are a continuing process. Measures introduced cause changes that may resolve some problems, but create others for which further policy and planning are required. Furthermore, only rarely is there a simple optimum solution to an urban problem. More usually, a range of policy and planning options exist from which an informed choice must be made.Urban policy is also the product of the power relation between the different interest groups that constitute a particular society. Foremost among these agents are government (both local and national) and capital in its various fractions. Capital and government pursue specific goals that may be either complementary or contradictory. These political and economic imperatives have a direct influence on the nature of urban policy. Urban policy is also conditioned by external forces operating within the global system as well as by locality-specific factors and agents. It would also be fair to conclude that urban policy making is the product of a continuous interaction of intellectual process and institutional response, a process driven by successive sets of powerful and relatively consistent value judge...

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