Post-apartheid City Research Articles

On the Edge of Scrutinizing and Reproducing Urban Imaginations of Johannesburg

In her latest book, Loren Kruger reconsiders visual and literary representations of the city of Johannesburg throughout its history. Her approach is a decidedly historical one, in contravention to the tendency of current literature about Johannesburg to emphasize its contemporary exclusiveness and ignore how it had been represented similarly for more than a century. Numerous books on the city of Johannesburg have been published during the 130 years since its foundation, covering the great narrative of the modern city in Africa to the world-class African post-apartheid city promoted by the current municipality. Recent books such as Lindsay Bremner’s Writing the City into Being. Essays on Johannesburg (2010) or Achille Mbembe and Sarah Nuttall’s special issue of Public Culture titled Johannesburg: The Elusive Metropolis (2004) have been crucial post-apartheid attempts at understanding transitional Johannesburg on the backdrop of both its apartheid history and legacy and the contingencies and particularities evolving with its transition under the young democracy.

(Un)Lawful Subjects of Company

This essay engages Cape Town – a city founded as a tavern of the seas linking Atlantic and Indian Ocean trade routes – by tracing the ways in which its foundation as seventeenth-century Dutch East India Company settlement resonates as metaphor through which to approach the contemporary corporate city. Rereading the Journal of Jan van Riebeeck through the lens of Ishtiyaq Shukri's The Silent Minaret and, particularly, Dan Sleigh's Islands, it explores the Journal's mutually informed production of crime and profit. It then turns to a set of recent thrillers – by Andrew Brown, Deon Meyer, Margie Orford, Roger Smith, Mike Nicol and Joanne Hitchens – as a way of reading the post-apartheid city. Finally, it engages Lauren Beukes' Moxyland, in which corporate Cape Town takes concrete form in a virtual society, before closing with reflections on the limits of the Company archive, the alternative archives it overwrote and erased and the potentialities of what it forecloses, including the common and the creole.

Mega-projects and sustainability in Durban, South Africa: Convergent or divergent agendas?

This paper explores the relationship between urban regeneration and sustainability within the post-apartheid city of Durban, South Africa, using mega-projects as a lens. In the past 20 years Durban has been shaped by both globalisation and post-apartheid restructuring, through processes of pro-growth urban regeneration and social transformation. Simultaneously, sustainability has emerged as a critical concept in the development and management of the city. This paper examines the regeneration landscape of the city, focussing on the implementation of two “new” mega-projects, as a regeneration strategy. These are the Moses Mabhida Stadium and the Point Waterfront Development. Furthermore it reflects upon the inclusion of sustainable city principles within the development of these projects, in order to determine the extent to which this urban regeneration strategy considers sustainability. The paper concludes that the two agendas of urban regeneration and sustainability are currently divergent rather than convergent, and suggests that they require further integration to ensure a more sustainable urban future.

Inside Out – The New Literary Geographies of the Post-Apartheid City in Mpe's and Vladislavić's Johannesburg Writing

This article examines the strategies used by Johannesburg writers Phaswane Mpe and Ivan Vladislavić in their texts Welcome to Our Hillbrow (2001) and Portrait with Keys: The City of Johannesburg Unlocked (2006) to make sense of the bewildering transformations of post-apartheid Johannesburg. I begin by sketching the transformations of the city in the wake of the dismantling of apartheid-era segregation, sketching in particular the way in which the city has been turned ‘inside out’. Then, in the texts by Mpe and Vladislavić, I examine figures of the ‘inside out’, specifically Mpe's use of narratological loops and Vladislavić's implementation of the figure of the Möbius strip, to show how these recent literary texts have attempted to elucidate the vertiginous demographic changes in the city.

Heritage and the post-apartheid city: Constitution Hill, Johannesburg

This article examines the development of Constitution Hill on the site of the Old Fort prison in Johannesburg, South Africa. Constitution Hill is the location of the new Constitutional Court and has two main purposes. First, as a heritage site it attempts to address the divisions that characterise contemporary South African society by acting as a physical manifestation of the human rights ethos around which much of post-apartheid South African public discourse revolves. Second, it was conceived as a developmental node to encourage urban regeneration in Johannesburg’s inner city. However, while the Court and related heritage areas have been established, tensions regarding the site’s different purposes have remained and resulted in its incomplete development.

Differential Urbanisation Trends in South Africa—Regional and Local Equivalents

The paper analyses trends in the location of commercial, industrial, and different residential land uses in the four largest metropolitan cities of South Africa over the past decade. Recent development patterns show strong decentralisation trends of away from core cities to the metropolitan fringes despite proactive containment policies. Elements of the differential urbanisation model are used to explain heterogeneous migration patterns within a rapidly urbanising South African population. Indications are that strong centrifugal patterns in the cities are linked to both local decentralisation and deflected urbanisation at the regional level. This results in continuing social stratification in all four agglomerations and the continuation of the ‘post-apartheid city.’ The persistent movement of populations and commercial and industrial land uses to the urban fringe has resulted in the strengthening of the multicentric urban framework of the four metropolitan cities.

Urban Pulse—The Struggle for Water, Life, and Dignity In South African Cities: The Case of Johannesburg

The struggle for water is a key feature of life in Johannesburg, as it is in all South African cities. This article describes a court action that was brought against the City of Johannesburg by the people of one neighborhood, Phiri, in an effort to secure an adequate supply of water. It is shown how the people of Phiri argued for the removal of discriminatory technology in the form of prepayment meters and for an increase in the quantity of water. Furthermore, it will show how race, class, and geography are articulated in the post-apartheid city.

Natural Neighbors: Indigenous Landscapes and Eco-Estates in Durban, South Africa

In South Africa, new gated communities have begun branding themselves as “eco-estates,” “game estates,” “nature estates,” and “forest estates.” The marketing and consumption of nature has become prominent in the production and consumption of gated communities. A particular emphasis is placed on the use of native or indigenous plant species in landscape design. Suburbanites seeking to escape the increasingly mixed and threatening postapartheid city are offered a chance to reconnect with nature in eco-estates. Where largely white elites often feel a precarious hold in the new South Africa, natural heritage offers attachment to place. These natural landscapes are highly selective engagements with the local. Nature-oriented gated communities offer spaces that exclude problematic plants and people alike. Yet, while attempting to capitalize on this new gardening trend, developers have risked alienating conventional gardeners of exotic horticultural plants. The result is a strategic accommodation of different material expressions of landscape.

Legacies, Change and Transformation in the Post-Apartheid City: Towards an Urban Sociological Cartography

Abstract The post-apartheid city represents an important test case for assessing how the spatial dimensions of social inequality shape the dynamics of urban transformation. Most analyses of urban segregation have focused on race or class as key drivers of mobility or maintenance, for instance in the classic spatial assimilation versus place stratification debate. Yet the mechanisms of segregation and mixing play themselves out differently according to urban spatial structure. We use the case of Durban, South Africa, to show that the spatial legacies of apartheid are powerful, and much of the city has undergone little change since apartheid. Through a spatial analysis at the neighbourhood level, we also find that even in the short time between 1996 and 2001 a significant number of neighbourhoods experienced measurable shifts in their racial and socio-economic composition. We develop what we call a sociological cartography of the city, which shows how race, class and space have combined to generate three distinct but interconnected types of stasis and transformation: the racialized city, the class-stratified city and the transformed city. The racialized city is the most direct legacy of apartheid spatial development, encompassing neighbourhoods composed of essentially a single race group. In the class-stratified city, multiple race groups of similar class status are represented. Finally, the transformed city represents new configurations that cut across both race and class divisions of the apartheid city. Résumé La ville post-apartheid constitue un cas-test important permettant d’évaluer la manière dont les dimensions spatiales de l’inégalité sociale façonnent les dynamiques de transformation urbaine. Les analyses de la ségrégation urbaine se sont intéressées, par la plupart, à la race ou à la classe comme facteurs fondamentaux de mobilité ou de stabilité, comme par exemple dans le débat classique opposant assimilation spatiale et stratification des lieux. Toutefois, les mécanismes de ségrégation et de mixité s’exercent différemment selon la structure spatiale urbaine. Il est montré, à partir du cas sud-africain de Durban, combien les héritages spatiaux de l’apartheid sont profonds et, en grande partie, la ville a peu changé depuis cette époque. En se basant sur une analyse spatiale au niveau des quartiers, il est également établi que, même dans la courte période entre 1996 et 2001, bon nombre d’entre eux ont subi des changements mesurables dans leur composition raciale et socio-économique. Une ‘cartographie sociologique’ de la ville a été mise au point, montrant comme race, classe et espace se sont combinés pour générer trois types distincts, mais interconnectés, de stase et de transformation: la ville racialisée, la ville stratifiée par classe, et la ville transformée. La ville racialisée est l’héritage le plus direct de l’aménagement spatial datant de l’apartheid, englobant des quartiers composés essentiellement d’un seul groupe racial. Dans la ville stratifiée par classe, plusieurs groupes raciaux relevant de la même position sociale sont représentés. Enfin, la ville transformée reflète les configurations nouvelles qui transcendent les divisions de race et de classe propres à la ville de l’apartheid.

Between the Push and the Shove: Everyday Struggles and the Re-making of Durban

Durban has embarked on an ambitious programme to re-make the city into a preferred destination for mega-sports events. In order to achieve this it has earmarked the area closest to the central beachfront to build sporting facilities and related infrastructure. This article looks at the consequences of this re-making by focusing on how the poor in the inner city have been affected. The article concentrates on two areas – Albert Park where African immigrants reside and Warwick Junction, the site of a century-old market. It shows that rather than the city having been re-made from the top, it has had to contend with resistance from below. The article concludes by raising some important theoretical concerns in comprehending the major changes unfolding in post-apartheid cities like Durban.

Deconstructing density: Strategic dilemmas confronting the post-apartheid city

Public authorities in many countries around the world are seeking to raise urban densities. Residential densification is particularly important in South Africa because of the colonial and apartheid legacy of sprawling, fragmented, racially divided cities. This paper examines the case for densifying central Cape Town and provides a framework to help deconstruct the concept and explore some of the policy challenges faced. It focuses on the bold aim to treble the area’s population within 10 years, and identifies issues where further consideration and public debate are required for how this can be achieved in a way that is desirable, affordable and fair. A key message is the need to understand both the composition of demand for central city living and the challenges involved in supplying suitable housing and amenities at higher densities. The level of social inequality in the city poses greater complications than elsewhere.

Is There Such a Thing as a Post-apartheid City?

In an introductory section, this paper considers briefly the achievements and problems of urban governance in post-apartheid South Africa through an assessment of three categories: administrative reform, developmental issues and conflicts over service delivery issues. It then goes on to assess continuity and change in South African cities. Continuity is the norm in understanding urban history with change understood as a series of accretions and as a layering of features, unless major economic shifts or revolutionary political shifts are in place. Using the example of Durban, a series of changes is highlighted, which fit into what the deracialized growth path allows and encourages. The paper argues that thus far, the ANC government has shown little capacity or desire to discipline capital along the lines suggested, for instance, by the Reconstruction and Development Programme’s section on public transport. Larger changes are thus limited by the predilections and established discourses of the business world and the absence of more dynamic and structured public intervention.

‘Slaughter in the suburbs’: livestock slaughter and race in post-apartheid cities

The slaughter of animals is a fundamental aspect of the economic, social and spiritual life of many people in South Africa. Under apartheid, these events generally occurred in rural areas or urban townships designated for black people. Since the transition to democracy in the 1990s, increased suburban mixing has exposed established middle-class residents, notably white people, to cattle slaughter. The article explores the resulting public discourses on these events, such as condemnations, liberal appeals for tolerance and Africanist claims to citizenship and space. In addition, the article examines anxieties that some white people express in relation to the materiality of the slaughter of animals in residential areas. The article offers a multi-layered analysis of reactions to animal slaughter in relation to race, identity, difference, space and the place of animals and meat production in cities.

Schooling subjectivities across the post-apartheid city

The focus of this article is on the subjectivities associated with the changing schooling landscape in the post-apartheid city. Urban practices in the city of Cape Town form the backdrop of this article. My premise is the view that what people become, their sense of self, can be understood by considering their daily interaction with the city's schools. I argue that the desire for quality schooling must be understood in the light of the lived practices that people establish across the city's geographies. Mobility is central to these practices. The article traverses a number of geographic spaces to provide a heterodox view of how schooling in the city is lived. It opens with a discussion of the interaction between “lived space” and the subjectivities people take on as they navigate the city's schools. Next, with reference to a specific geographic example, I discuss how suburban schools go about establishing their identifications in relation to the complex ways people access them from beyond the confines of their immediate neighbourhoods. I suggest that incoming students are assimilated into the hegemonic culture of these suburban schools. Third, I focus on the lived spatial dimensions of schooling and their attendant subjectivities in black township1 spaces. Finally, the article considers the movement across ‘lines of subordination’ by children who move from a black African township to schools in adjacent coloured2 areas. This form of school choice is marked by “truncated desire,” based on these students’ unmet expectations in the culturally alienating environment of their new schools. The article draws on my ongoing National Research Foundation (NRF) project entitled, “Educational renovation in urban spaces”, based on qualitative work in a number of school sites in Cape Town.

The Play of Race in a Field of Urban Desire

The brutal history of racially based segregation in Johannesburg, as in other post-apartheid cities, would appear to condemn its inhabitants to live in perpetual fear of violence based on perceptions of racial and national difference. Yet urban pick-up soccer recreates spaces in which that history can be suspended, if not forgotten. In creating evanescent form out of spontaneous play, such games may be understood as artful conversations among bodies-in-motion. Players have the freedom to engage in charismatic self-fashioning, inventing a fantasy persona on the field that is larger than the life they live at other times and places in the city. In this way, participants project themselves into a social future beyond race that they might not otherwise be able to imagine.

Durban - A subtropical coastal paradise? Tourism dynamics in a post-apartheid city

This paper examines the changing fortunes of Durban as a tourist city from the apartheid to the post apartheid eras. Durban has long earned its prime position as one of South Africa’s most popular year‑round tourist destination. In keeping with the dictates of apartheid, the city catered largely for the needs of the white minority, while that of the black majority was largely ignored. With political changes and shifts in both the international and domestic markets, an effort had to be made to reposition tourism in the city. In order to successfully promote its tourism opportunities, Durban attempted to enhance its image and appeal by promoting its sports, convention and cultural attractions. The democratic transition of the 1990s provided many challenges, the most enduring of which was the need to cater for the emerging black tourist market. There was also an urgency to address problems of crime and grime, disparities in the distribution of labour market opportunities, especially in terms of race and gender within the tourism sector. A serious threat to tourism in Durban is unemployment and alienation of the majority of African people from the industry.

Geographical Limitations of Neo-liberalism: Urban Planning and the Occluded Territoriality of Informal Survival in African Cape Town

Urban political geography lacks theoretical work on the territoriality of the informal economy, notwithstanding the empirical significance of informal city-building all around the world. With reference to the hypothesis of growing neo-liberalism in post-apartheid cities, this paper explores the territoriality of informal-sector governance in Cape Town, using a theorisation that foregrounds place/space dialectics. An analysis is offered of informal-sector practices and the administrative strategies of the local state, particularly the urban planning system. While support for the neo-liberal hypothesis is presented, the paper argues for the geographical limitations of neo-liberalism as a territorial strategy of the post-apartheid state.

The Post-Apartheid City in the New South Africa: A Constitutional "Triomf"?

The Post-Apartheid City in the New South Africa: A Constitutional "Triomf"?

The weight of history, a broad sense of the possible: Economic history, development studies, political economy and Bill Freund

The weight of history, a broad sense of the possible: Economic history, development studies, political economy and Bill Freund

Beyond the Post-Apartheid City: De/Segregation and Suburbanization in Windhoek, Namibia

Following the demise of apartheid in Namibia and South Africa in 1990 and 1994 respectively, urban practitioners as well as academics writing on the subject have aimed to address the well-documented geography of apartheid. Post-apartheid urban development strategies, as most urban practitioners and scholars agree, need to contribute to overcoming the social divisions and spatial marginalization produced and naturalized by apartheid urban planning policies. Flow these legacies should be overcome is, however, a matter of contention. Using the example of Namibia's capital city, Windhoek, this paper illuminates the extent to which post-apartheid urban planning policy strategies have redressed the socio-spatial marginalization of the black and colored majority. Specifically, this paper examines the ways Windhoek residents, the city's urban practitioners, and academics writing on the subject approach the exclusionary spatial legacies of apartheid. Given the continuing fragmentation of the city form and the reproduction of its concomitant structural inequalities, future municipal strategies could aim to reverse these trends by targeting “integration.”