Post-Apartheid Cities in South Africa: A Mirage of Inclusivity

Abstract

Post-apartheid cities in South Africa such as Buffalo City, Cape Town, Ekurhuleni, Johannesburg, Mangaung, Nelson Mandela Bay, eThekwini, and Tshwane exhibit a high scale of inequality in land ownership and access to economic and housing opportunities. The attainment of independence offered public policymakers the opportunity to restructure the urban space economy through the redistribution of urban land and the provision of low-income housing and economic opportunities in strategic inner-city locations. However, urban local authorities have failed to restructure these segregated cities by delivering these opportunities at scale to the marginalised majority. Many of the marginalised urban residents who have been left behind by the train of economic development are trapped in endemic poverty and live in squalor. The cities remain segregated as traditional interventions have mostly been focused on cosmetic physical improvements such as in-situ upgrading without addressing the economic, social, and spatial causes of urban inequality. This chapter seeks to develop an inclusive economic development framework (IEDF) that integrates the dimensions of spatial inclusion, social inclusion, and economic inclusion into the urban development agenda seeking to resolve chronic unemployment, a growing informal economy, chronic housing shortage, and widespread informal settlements. To achieve this objective, the study gathered qualitative data through semi-structured interviews and a questionnaire conducted in eight metropolitans. The data were analysed using factor analysis and the results reveal criteria for economic inclusion that formed the centrepiece of the IEDF proposed in this chapter.