Cape Town after apartheid: crime and governance in the divided city

Abstract

Cape Town After Apartheid examines law and order after the dismantling of apartheid in South Africa. Nearly two decades after the end of the apartheid regime Tony Samara's book provides a critical exploration of the links between inequality and crime control in the post-apartheid era. The book tells the story of a South Africa inadvertently reproducing the repressive governance of the apartheid era and of hardening inequality made worse by neoliberal crime control policies. Cape Town After Apartheid paints a bleak picture of local segregation, crime and gang violence within a failing system of urban governance where security and crime control policies continue to fail. Samara identifies crime control as an integral part of neoliberal governance arguing that neoliberal policies are preoccupied with addressing the crisis of development by focusing on eliminating security threats perceived as being the main barriers to prosperity. Samara identifies that 'as long as underdevelopment remains a reality for the majority of South Africa's citizens, however, the state will be forced into an essentially, reactive security posture, be it in response to organized political resistance or disorganized and well organized criminal activity - seeking to contain crisis to which, some would argue, its own policies directly contribute' (Samara, 2012: 31). The author illustrates how Cape Town is a city divided both spatially and socially; highlighting the differences between the high crime area of the Cape Flats and the affluent, and predominantly white, areas of the suburbs. Samara observes that the majority of crime is located 'far from the tourists and wealthier residents clustered in and around the city's core' (2011: 3). Samara identifies that there is, in fact, disconnect between Cape Town the global tourist brand and the underdeveloped Cape Town which draws similarities with the expanding ghettos of the global south. Central to Samara's narrative is criticism of the failure of neoliberalism as a tool of urban governance. Market-driven neoliberal governance underpins development and urban renewal within post-apartheid Cape Town with the consequence that crime has assumed a priority within development discourse. As Samara explains 'free markets provide guiding principles and reference points for ordering urban life' (2012:5) with the consequence that the approach to crime is one which prioritises safety and security and the quality of life for a revitalized urban economy. Gordon (2001) identifies that