Public endeavour and shelter at Cradock/Kaladokhwe/Nxuba, Eastern Cape, South Africa

Abstract

ABSTRACT: Publicly-funded housing in small towns in South Africa remains a relatively understudied field, and most of the hundreds of small towns find themselves in difficult positions in the 21st century, posing the question of how public housing relates to their pasts, their presents, and perhaps their futures. One such town, Cradock, has a long history during which shelter has been provided, and in some ways welcomed, but which also demonstrates problems. The paper periodises this history in four parts, noting breaks in public provision. First, growing application of public funds created a significant portion of the shelter people occupied in Cradock over the first half of the twentieth century – the segregation period. Second, apartheid and its draconian effects but also the period of much greater public funding of shelter, changed the landscape and the lives of Cradock substantially up to the mid- 1980s. Third, mass-based opposition in Cradock of the 1980s shifted the terrain, followed by a 'transitional' period until new national housing policy took effect in the 1990s. Fourth, the twenty-first century brought more complexity and uncertainty and a lack of new projects over the past two decades. The last part of the paper then considers the question: What are the futures for public housing in Cradock (and other small towns)? How can it contribute to the futures of such towns? The article is based on secondary sources, archival and documentary research, field work and discussions with numerous people.