Towards the post-apartheid city

AJ. Christopher

Department of Geography, University of Port Elizabeth, P.O. Box 1600, Port Elizabeth 6000, South Africa

Abstract. — Apartheid legislation was repealed in 1991 and South African cities entered a new era freed from the coercive legal constraints of the past. The structures of the apartheid city have proved to be remarkably resilient and changes in the ethnically based segregated residential patterns have been limited. Pockets of integration have been apparent, some predating 1991, but significantly the central cities have been subject to transformation. The forces undermining the apartheid city are as yet weak and spatially limited, as most newly formed suburbs are essentially mono-African in character. The vast majority of South Africa's urban dwellers will continue to live within the framework established under apartheid for the foreseeable future.

APARTHEID, SOUTH AFRICA, URBAN SEGREGATION

Résumé. — Les villes sud-africaines après l'apartheid. — La

législation relative à l'apartheid a été abrogée en 1991 et les villes d'Afrique du Sud sont entrées dans une ère nouvelle, libérées des contraintes du passé. Les structures des villes de l'apartheid ont montré une forte resilience et les changements dans les formes spatiales de la ségrégation ethnique ont été limités. Des poches d'intégration existent, certaines sont antérieures à 1991, mais ce sont les centres des villes qui ont le plus changé. Les forces qui combattent l'apartheid en ville sont assez faibles et spatialement limitées, tandis que les nouvelles banlieues sont essentiellement mono-africaines. La grande majorité des habitants des villes sud- africaines continuera vraisemblablement de vivre, au cours des prochaines années, dans le cadre établi sous l'apartheid.

Afrique du Sud, apartheid, ségrégation' urbaine

The repeal of the legislation creating and underpinning the preservation of the apartheid city in June 1991 unleashed highly inflated expectations of desegregation, social and economic upliftment and radical change in South African urban areas. A substantial body of literature has been built up attempting to predict the nature of the post-apartheid city and the processes by which this would be attained (Drakakis-Smith, 1992; Hart, 1989; Lemon, 1991, 1995; Mabin, 1995; Saff, 1991; Smith, 1992;

Swilling et al., 1991; Tomlinson, 1990). The ambitious plans formulated by the Government of National Unity through the Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP) provided for a significant measure of state intervention in order to redress the officially created imbalances of the past (African National Congress, 1994). However, subsequent events have belied such expectations and the extent and pace of change have been rather limited.

© L'Espace géographique, 1999, n°4